Catalyst
by Jaelle
Summary: A semiserious fic set after the manga. Ryoga, the eternally lost, returns to Nerima for the first time in six years, and is surprised by what's happened in his absence. Everyone else is surprised by what HE'S been up to as well! Part SEVEN now up.
1. Part One

Prologue

Just After Ranma 1/2 volume 36:

The dirty, dusty, despondent figure pushed his way through the undergrowth. "Oh man..." he said. "WHERE THE HELL AM I NOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!"

Behind a nearby tree, another figure stood up. "What the... Dad?"

The first figure turned to the second. "Son?" he said. "I've been looking for you EVERYWHERE?"

* * *

**Ranma 1/2: Catalyst**  
**Part One: Homecoming**  
**by Jaelle.**

* * *

The characters in this story were not created by me and do not belong to me in any way, shape or form. They are the creations of the one and only Rumiko Takahashi. All hail! 

Author's Note: While I have refrained from using Japanese in the story, I have continued to use Shampoo's trademark "Nihao" (after all, they're all speaking Japanese and she isn't in that case). I've also attached honorifics such as -chan and -kun to denote the various cast relationships where appropriate (although most of them are familiar enough with each other to not need to do so, not all of them are, and this way I can also indicate when someone is being formal and/or polite).

Words in _italics _are thoughts.

* * *

Six years later: 

The familiar figure walked onto the main street just after noon, bearing a heavy pack, a heavy heart, and another even heavier and weary burden. He paused to look around him. _Amazing_, he thought, _It looks exactly the way it did when I left. I can't believe it. It doesn't seem to have changed at all_. He looked around. _Hard to believe it's been six years_.

"What a haul! What a haul!"

The figure started. "Oh NO! It couldn't be!" He looked upwards once more. Above him, a wizened old man sailed overhead.

"Oh my silky darlings!"

"COME BACK HERE YOU OLD FART!"

A horrified expression plastered itself across the newcomer's face.

Ranma Saotome, champion martial artist, part-time cursed girl and heartbreaker sailed overhead in pursuit of the totally perverted master of martial arts - Happosai.

"I can't believe it. Are they still fighting?" gasped the newcomer.

"Ranma, stop him! Hurry up or he'll get away!" Akane Tendo, first fiancee of Ranma ran along behind the duo.

"I'm doing my best Akane! Now why don't you go home before you get hurt!"

"Hey! I'm a martial artist too you know."

"Yeah right."

"Why you!"

Sprinting after Happosai, the pair continued to trade insults. Almost overwhelmed with surprise, the newcomer flattened himself against a shop wall just as a horde of angry women in lynch mob formation ran down main street screaming multiple variations on "Get the pervert!"

The newcomer stepped back out into the main street and stared at the departing crowd. "It's very hard to believe that it's been six years."

"Why hello there Ryoga!"

Ryoga Hibiki turned to see Kasumi Tendo standing behind him. "Hello Kasumi. It's been a long time."

"It has been quite a while since we last saw you," said Kasumi. "I was starting to get a little worried."

"A little worried?"

"When you didn't show up again."

Ryoga doubletaked. "You mean... but... didn't you all get my letters?"

Kasumi frowned. "Letters?"

"I sent three letters!"

Kasumi shrugged helplessly. "I'm so sorry Ryoga. They must have been destroyed or lost or something. You know how that happens."

Ryoga stood there, mouth hanging open. "I cannot believe this." A small hand patted at his head. Ryoga looked up at the small boy on his shoulders, who pointed at a nearby shaved ice cart.

"Hungry? Okay, we'll get you some ice."

"What an adorable little boy." said Kasumi admiringly. "He's so cute!"

The little boy stared solemnly at her, big dark eyes almost hidden beneath an unruly mop of hair.

"Hello there," she said. "My name is Kasumi, what's yours?"

Silence.

"Uh," said Ryoga. "I'd better explain." _Why not? _he thought half-crazily. _After all, if anyone could understand, it would be the Tendo girls!_

--

Ukyou Kuonji ran down main street, hampered by the crowds of people out seeking lunch. _What a time to run out of cabbage! Argh!_ She sprinted a little faster, the bag of cabbages bouncing against her back. Two familiar forms ahead made her pause however. Good grief, the eternal lost boy was back in town again. Why on earth was he talking to Kasumi Tendo? Probably asking for directions. Like they'd do him any good.

Ukyou stifled a snicker and smiled, _This is perfect!_ she silently exulted. _Have I got plans for him! Ranchan... you're MINE!_

"Ryoga!" she exclaimed in pleasure. "It's been ages! I need to talk to you right away!"

_What the... Ukyou...?_ thought Ryoga. "Hi Ukyou, how's it been?"

"Oh, you know sugar, same old same old."

"Yeah, I'm starting to realise that."

_What? Oh never mind. Cute kid. Back to business_. Ukyou grabbed an arm. "Come on you jackass. I need to talk to you!

"But... I can't..." Ryoga dug his feet in. "No!"

_Not like Ryoga to stand up to me. Maybe he's finally grown a backbone._ "Come on Ryoga, it's important." Ukyou stressed crossly. "Geez! Half an hour, that's all I ask!"

"Out of the question," said Ryoga. "He's hungry." _On the other hand, Ukyou's likely to know what's happening. But... no._

"Er, Ryoga-kun, if it's really that important, I could watch him for a while." offered Kasumi. "I'd enjoy it!" A light shone in her eyes.

Ryoga tensed. "I don't think that's such a good i..."

"Thank you Kasumi-chan!" said Ukyou. "I swear I'll return Ryoga to the training hall in an hour, okay? Ryoga!" she glared her 'agree now or die' look at him. Ryoga glared and then slowly assessed Kasumi. "That alright with you?" he addressed the child. In answer, the boy nodded. "Alright," Ryoga said. "One hour. No more. Thank you Kasumi." He reached up and gently lifted the boy off his shoulders and put him down on the ground. The boy immediately offered his hand to Kasumi, who held it and smiled.

"We have an ice machine at home." she said. "And six flavourings! Do you like strawberry?" The boy nodded and they walked off. Ryoga watched them go, eyes glued to the boy like a magnet.

"Come ON Ryoga." said Ukyou. "You can carry the cabbages," she threw in generously.

--

Hot okonomiyaki sizzled on the grill and Ukyou flipped it expertly and easily into the plate in front of Ryoga.

"... and then while Ranma's busy with me, you can sneak in and get Akane. There's a festival on that night, you can take her there and sweep her off her feet and everyone will be happy. What do you think?"

"Uh huh." said Ryoga. "This is the important thing you wanted to talk to me about?"

"What are you talking about Ryoga. It's the perfect plan! You do still want Akane, don't you?" Ukyou stared at him in amazement. _He's not even interested! What's wrong with him?_

"I can't believe we're still doing this! Plotting to get Akane and Ranma for ourselves." Ryoga looked her directly in the eyes. "I came because I wanted to know how everyone was doing?"

"Huh? Everyone's doing what they always do."

"Kuno?"

"Still clueless, still chasing both his pigtailed girl and Akane."

"But he's old enough to have finished college!"

"He finishes this year, he got held back a year."

"What for?"

"How would I know? Gross stupidity?"

"What about Shampoo, Cologne and Mousse?"

"Those harpies?" Ukyou frowned. "The Nekohanten is still open for business. Shampoo continues to try and steal my Ranma, and I still won't eat anything that Cologne's been near. Mousse challenged Ranma again last week and got trashed as usual."

"Ah ha! Ranma... he must have changed?" Ryoga asked desperately.

"No," said Ukyou. "He still won't say who he likes better, me or Akane."

"But there must be something different about him!"

Ukyou thought. "Well, we're getting fewer other fiancees showing up these days."

"I don't believe this." said Ryoga. "So you're telling me that nothing has changed since I left here six years ago? Nothing?"

Ukyou blinked, "Six years? Has it really been that long. Boy, how time flies huh?"

"And... Akane?"

Ukyou laughed. "Like Akane would ever change! Nothing will ever stop her being a violent, uncute tomboy!"

Ryoga stared at her. She frowned. What? Do I have something on me? "So, are you in with the plan or not?"

Ryoga pushed away his plate. "No." he said. "Thanks for thinking of me though."

Ukyou doubletaked. "What do you mean not? I have to have your help on this Ryoga! I need you." she looked at him pleadingly, in the way he'd never been able to resist.

"Not interested." said Ryoga. Ukyou gaped at him.

"How can you not be interested? This is Akane and Ranma we're talking about here. Akane... the love of your life! Wait a second..." she glared at him. "Don't tell me you've gone and fallen for someone else! Cos if you have it's almost certainly going to be Ranma in drag again you know."

Ryoga smiled a small bitter smile. "Ah yes, Ranma's favourite ploy. No Ukyou, that's not it. But I'm still not going to take part."

"I can't believe that you would be so faithless!" Ukyou threw at him. "I thought you were in love with Akane!"

"I've never stopped loving Akane," Ryoga replied calmly. "But I realised six years ago that no matter how much I loved her, and no matter how much she and Ranma fought or how bitterly, she would go on loving him and not me. She never loved me. I was either her friend or her pet. But never her love. And I never would be. And I realised that if I ever managed to win her away from Ranma it would be because she was angry with him, and not true love. And I also knew that if I got her like that she'd be miserable for the rest of her life." he stood up. "Thanks for the meal."

"Coward!" Ukyou accused. "You're just afraid of getting hurt fighting Ranma."

"I have greater concerns these days." Ryoga informed her.

"You mean that kid? Whoever chose you for a babysitter must have been out of their minds," Ukyou jeered. "How long ago should he have gotten back to his parents?"

"I am doing my best for him," said Ryoga.

"What are you, his mother?"

--

Akane trod through the doorway behind Nabiki, and stopped to replace her shoes with house slippers before entering the house.

"Kasumi! We're home!" she called. Nabiki pulled on her own slippers and followed Akane into the main living room.

"Oh!"

"What?" Nabiki asked, peering around Akane. "Oh we have a visitor."

"What a cute little boy!" said Akane. "Hello there!" The boy replaced his spoon in the shaved ice and looked up from the TV. Akane knelt down beside him. "Hi! Is the ice yummy?" In answer the boy pushed it towards her.

"Oh no, this is yours." Akane pushed it back. "I'll get some of my own."

"Even you should be able to manage that." Nabiki murmured unheard. She knelt down on the other side of the boy. "Hey."

"My name is Akane, what's yours?" asked Akane.

Silence.

"He hasn't spoken since his mother died," said Kasumi, entering the room with three more servings of shaved ice. She set two of them out in front of Akane and Nabiki and knelt, taking the third for herself. "This is Tenjou, Ryoga's son."

--

"Your... your WHAT!"

"My son." Ryoga turned to face the doorway. "My son Tenjou. He is four years old and I love him more than anything or anyone." he turned back to Ukyou. "And now I would like to get back to him. If you're too busy to lead me to the Tendo's, perhaps I could prevail upon Konatsu to take me there." he quirked an eyebrow at Ukyou's loyal assistant.

"Uh... uh..." Ukyou stared at him, mouth open, totally flabberghasted. "Uh..."

Ryoga waited patiently for a minute, but when Ukyou showed no sign of overcoming her shock anytime soon he looked back at Konatsu meaningfully. Konatsu closed his mouth and took off his apron. "Gladly will I take you to the Tendo dojo Hibiki-san." he said. "This way please... uhhh...  
congratulations."

Ryoga smiled. "Thank you."

--

"Ryoga's son?" repeated Nabiki. "Ryoga Hibiki? The legendary lost boy himself? Has a SON? Kasumi... are you sure you heard him right? "

Kasumi nodded, "Oh yes."

Akane sat paralysed in shock, unable to digest this news. Nabiki stared at Tenjou. "Are you really Ryoga's son?" she asked. In response, Tenjou opened his mouth, revealing a perfect set of 'fangs'.

"Yeesh!" said Nabiki. "Well, that is fairly convincing." She sat back on her heels. "I wonder when he got married."

"Why didn't he tell us?" exploded Akane.

"I, uh, sent three letters, but Kasumi tells me they never arrived," replied a deep voice from the doorway. The three Tendo sisters turned to see Ryoga standing nervously in the doorway. He bowed awkwardly. "Hello Akane-san, Nabiki-san, I'm so happy to see you both again." _Well_, he thought mentally,_ I'm so happy to see Akane again that I'm almost even happy to see Nabiki._ He entered the room. "I hope Tenjou wasn't any trouble." Behind him, Konatsu poked a curious head around the corner.

"Oh no," said Kasumi. "He's been a perfect little angel." She smiled at Tenjou, who soberly regarded her. She patted his arm and he flashed the briefest smile at her. All three girls were enchanted.

"He's so cute!" said Akane. "Con-congratulations Ryoga-kun. Who's his mother? Akari?" Then she remembered what Kasumi had said earlier and bit her lip.

A shadow crossed Ryoga's face. "No, I realised that things wouldn't really work out between Akari and I. We had... too many philosophical differences." _Like her love of pigs - ugh._ Then memory kicked in and sorrow filled his face. "His mother's name was Keiko. Keiko Asagira." he sat down and held out his arms. Tenjou stood up and walked into them. Ryoga held his son tenderly, eyes closed, pain evident on his face.

Akane wished she could just learn when to keep her mouth shut. Ryoga finally broke the silence. "You never met her." he said. "It was an arranged marriage between our families."

A faint sniffle came from the doorway. Akane looked up to see Konatsu wiping his eyes. "Oh Konatsu," she said. "Won't you come in."

"No no..." said Konatsu. "I just came round here to see the proof... I mean the kid! I have to get back to Ucchan's." he bowed to the assembled group and fled. "Sayonara!" he called back. Ryoga chuckled. "Still the same Konatsu. I see noone has managed to convince him to dress like a guy yet."

"But he makes such a pretty girl!" enthused Kasumi. Sweat drops trickled down the heads of Ryoga, Nabiki and Akane.

"Uh, yeah." said Akane. "And besides, he's half the attraction at Ucchan's."

The conversation sat in an awkward silence.

"Well Ryoga, why don't you tell us what you've been up to in the last couple of years?" said Nabiki at last.

"That... could take a while," said Ryoga.

"Hey, we're not going anywhere," she said, stretching her legs. "Though I think I'll get changed before I hear this." she stood up.

"I don't know," said Ryoga. "I should really get going."

"No!" exclaimed Akane. "You just got here! Where are you going?"

"Well, nowhere actually." Ryoga admitted. "But I don't want to presume..."

"Get serious," Nabiki said. "You're the most interesting thing that's happened in months."

"What about Ranma's fight with Mousse last week?" Ryoga asked, remembering something Ukyou had said.

"Like that's interesting," said Nabiki. "This is new. Be back in a bit. Why don't you take a bath or something while we're changing?" She headed off, schoolbag in hand.

"That's a great idea!" said Akane. "I'll get changed too, do you need directions to the bathroom?"

"We can manage thanks," said Ryoga. "But really... we couldn't..."

"But I've already picked up extra snacks!" said Kasumi. "Please?"

Ryoga blinked. "Al-alright then." He watched the girls disperse and felt a sudden sharp prickling at his eyes. He shook his head, blinked rapidly and breathed in deeply.

"Gah! We really do need a bath!"

--

Ranma jumped over the dojo wall and stomped in the front door.

"Damn sprinklers, I HATE summer." she said. "Argh! This is the fourth time today that one of those things has kicked in around me." She shook some of the water from her hair. "Still, at least I shook Kuno. When is that idiot ever going to get a clue?" still shaking her head and grumbling she walked into the house, kicking off her shoes as she went.

"Hey Kasumi!" she yelled. "Where is everyone?"

"Let's see," said Kasumi. Ranma stood there and assumed an 'I'm waiting' expression. "Akane and Nabiki are both getting changed, our fathers are on another training mission..."

"Translation, avoiding Happosai." said Ranma. "Thanks Kasumi."

"And Ryoga..."

"Ryoga?" Ranma started. "Man, I ain't seen HIM in ages." she cracked her knuckles. A smile spread across her face. "Where is he?"

"In the bath."

"What a coincidence." grunted Ranma. "Thanks again." she walked out. Kasumi opened another bag of snacks and poured them into a plate. Then her eyes widened.

"Oh my." she said.

--

Ranma opened the door to the bathroom, pulled off her tunic top as she walked in and nudged the door shut behind her. "Hey porkboy, you here yet or did you get lost in the water closet again?" No answer. She shrugged and undid her belt, kicking her trousers off. Wearing only her boxers she slid open the bath door... and stopped in shock. A small boy was kneeling on the edge of the steaming bath. Ranma stared as the boy turned to face him. Her eyes followed the hand he'd just pulled out of the water. It was clutching a yellow bandanna with black spots. Ranma looked around at the room. Ryoga's clothes were lying on the floor, soaked with cold water. Absently, Ranma turned off the shower, which was still gushing water up and examined the boy. He was soaked. The boy bared his teeth at Ranma, revealing highly-overdeveloped canines. Ranma gasped in breath.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" she cracked up into helpless laughter. "Waahahahahahahahahahahaha! Don't tell me... you found the spring of drowned boy? Whoo!" She collapsed onto the floor, clutching at her sides. "Ahahahahahahahahaha! You've been eating those damn de-aging mushrooms again haven't you? I can't believe you did that again after all the trouble from last time! Oh, you're killing me! I cannot believe this. And you're so CUTE too porkbun. Oh MAN."

Tenjou stared at the hysterical half-naked female and then narrowed his eyes. He rushed at her.

Ranma easily caught his fists as they launched at her.

"Geez you're rusty!" she said, squeezing his wrists. The boy winced in pain and Ranma frowned. That wasn't like Ryoga. The boy tried to kick her.

"Careful Ryoga," Ranma said. "Or I'll spank you. Wooohahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Ryoga Hibiki stood up in the bath, his green battle aura shining brighter than the sun. Ranma stopped laughing.

"Ranma." Ryoga's voice was calm, collected, quiet. "Let go of my son." Ranma's jaw dropped and she let go of Tenjou, who scooted over to one side.

"Thank you." said Ryoga. Ranma stood, any minute expecting to be shishihokodaned onto the next continent. Ryoga's jaw clenched and he closed his eyes. "No." he muttered quietly. "Not again." Slowly, slowly, the battle aura faded. Ranma's eyebrows had almost disappeared into her fringe. Ryoga opened his eyes and stared at her.

"Ryoga... I... whoa..." words failed Ranma. Then the impact hit. "Your son! When did you...?"

Unfortunately, that was as far as she got before Ryoga smashed the wooden bucket over her head.

--

"Hi there," Ryoga sat down next to his son. "Tenjou, have you behaved?"

"He's been fine," said Ranma, nursing the bruise on his head.

Ryoga ignored him. "I hope you weren't frightened by that." He apologised to him. Tenjou shook his head.

"He may not have been, but I was terrified." admitted Ranma.

"Did Ranma hurt you?" Ryoga asked Tenjou.

"For crying out loud! What sort of a jerk do you think I am anyway? It was a mistake I tell you! I didn't know you had a kid with you. Nobody told me. You never told me either."

"So then you're not hurt?" Ryoga pressed.

"The kid is FINE." Ranma yelled. "It's you we're all worried about. How come you never told me you got married?"

"I sent three letters! It's not my fault everything important around here gets destroyed or mangled." Ryoga snapped. He turned back to his son. "Are you ready to go Tenjou?" His son nodded.

"Go where porkchop?" asked Ranma. "It's going to be dark soon, how do you intend to find your way out of this house?"

"Tenjou, will you please lead me to the front door?" Ryoga said. Tenjou took his fathers hand and began to walk in the right direction.

"Will you sit down?" Ranma exploded. "Geez, you disappear for six years, come back and drop the bomb that you have a kid and just plan to bug out after ten minutes in my company? Sit down dimwit! Stay here tonight!"

Ryoga paused. "Thanks a lot pal," he sneered. "I think I can manage."

"I ain't asking for you, maybe your kid would like a nice homecooked meal for a change." Ranma snarled back. "And it would be nice to eat dinner with someone who isn't trying to kill or marry me! At least right this moment anyway, I'm presuming you're over that now." He shifted and looked uncomfortable. "You've been away a long time you know. Besides, the girls have all fallen in love with the kid." He rubbed the bump on his head he'd received from Akane's mallet after he'd explained the shower fiasco. It still hurt. "Come on, do me a favour. It'll keep Akane away from me."

Ryoga's lips quirked in a small smile. "Thanks for the invite." He said. "I suppose it would be nice to eat home cooking for a change. Tenjou?"

In answer, the boy walked back to the table and started watching television again. Ranma stared at him. "Quiet isn't he?"

"You have a problem with that?" Ryoga flared.

"No. It's a nice change." Ranma tentatively reached out a hand and ruffled Tenjou's hair, then took a closer look at the boys physique. "You teaching him martial arts?"

"Yeah," said Ryoga. "Just basics. He's got good balance and a fair stance."

"I hope you're not going to teach him the Bakusai Tenketsu anytime soon?"

"Hit my son with boulders? Are you INSANE!" Ryoga stared at Ranma.

"Heh," Ranma laughed. "What does that say about you?" Ryoga reluctantly laughed and rubbed the back of his head. By mutual mental consent they both decided to forget about the incident in the bathroom.

Kasumi walked into the room, carrying some tea. "Tea Ryoga?" She asked. "I have some milk for Tenjou."

"Thank you Kasumi," said Ryoga, accepting the steaming mug. Tenjou stood and received his milk with a small bow. Ranma also took a mug and was sipping at it as Kasumi turned to leave when he remembered.

"Oh Kasumi, I invited Ryoga and Tenjou to dinner, okay?"

"Oh that's WONDERFUL!" said Kasumi, clapping her hands. "What's his favourite food?"

"Chicken," said Ryoga bemusedly.

"Chicken it is. How about some duck with that?"

Ryoga and Ranma threw a look at each other. "Maybe not." They said, thinking of Mousse. "Chicken should be fine."

Kasumi ran out of the room, mentally consigning her original meal to the rubbish bin. Ryoga looked at Ranma. "She seems a bit excited today."

"Women," muttered Ranma. "Who understands them?" He sipped some tea. "So, what's the story? Spill the beans man."

"Not much to tell," said Ryoga. "After it became obvious that I was never going to get Akane..."

"When did that become obvious?"

"Sometime around when I got the invitation to your wedding."

"That didn't exactly go smoothly," Ranma pointed out.

Ryoga smiled, remembering the havoc, and his contribution towards it. "Hey, I had to pay you back somehow."

Ranma grunted, "Go on."

"Anyway, I took off, never to return. Got lost in the wilds of Japan." I think he added mentally. One never could be entirely sure - most wilds looked the same after a while. Though at least that one had been mercifully free of anacondas. Big snakes that swam underwater and had a habit of squeezing the life out of, and then ingesting small mammals were not normally a problem for your average human. It was the average small black piglet that had the major difficulties with them. Anyways...

"Wandered around for a while, then bumped into someone else - turned out to be my father."

Ranma's eyebrows raised. "Lucky." he commented.

"Yeah, I hadn't seen him for about eight years." said Ryoga. "Just phone messages on the answering machine. Turned out he'd," here he grinned at Ranma, "arranged a marriage for me."

Ranma groaned and put his hands over his face. "Parents!"

"We went to see her," Ryoga continued. "Her name was Keiko." His eyes got a faraway look. "She was pretty. She knew about my navigational problems, but didn't mind. She was an only child, her mother was dead and her father was dying. They didn't have any money and she didn't know any guys and her dad was worried about how she'd manage after he died. He wanted to see her married so that he could be easy at mind. He met my dad, who was passing through, found out about me and decided we'd be a good match."

"Why?" asked Ranma, not seeing the logic in this.

"That way, if we didn't get along that well, she wouldn't have to see me everyday." explained Ryoga. "And also, my Dad had enough money to set us up in our own house, with a healthy sum left over. Her dad figured that at least she wouldn't be homeless. We met, she seemed nice enough so we decided to give it a go." he smiled in memory. "It was fun. I got a cellphone and kept money on me for taxis and stuff. Keiko got a drivers licence and a car. It worked. For a while."

"So what happen? She find out about your curse?" asked Ranma, yawning at this image of domesticity. He realised almost immediately that this had been the wrong thing to ask. He stared at Ryoga's rigid form.

"We were driving home from the doctors. He had just told us that we were going to have another child." Ryoga's voice was the temperature of liquid nitrogen. Every word burned. His eyes were dark lumps of obsidian. "We were hit by a drunk driver. Keiko was killed almost immediately."

Ranma noted the "almost". He also noted the way that Ryoga's battle aura had come to life again and the ferocity with which Tenjou was concentrating on the television, which was currently broadcasting an advertisement for grease solidifiers. For possibly the first time in his life, Ranma Saotome thought before opening his big mouth.

"Hey man, I'm really sorry." he stopped there. Carefully, he reached out a hand and gripped Ryoga's shoulder. Slowly the aura faded. Ryoga looked away. "Thanks." he said quietly.

"And now?" Ranma prompted after some time had passed.

"Now." Ryoga smiled. "Think of me as a ronin. I'm just wandering around. I couldn't stand to stay there anymore." His shoulders shook and he blinked hard. "So, here I am." He finished, a slight strain in his voice. "Wanna fight?"

"Not... right now." said Ranma. "It's nearly dinner time." He eyed Ryoga. There was a strange feeling there. Like... held back emotions. Not like Ryoga. Better leave it for now. Push later. "You'll be okay." he said. "So will the kid."

Ryoga smiled briefly.

--

End Part One.


	2. Part Two

* * *

**Ranma 1/2: Catalyst**

**Part Two: Wanderers**  
**by Jaelle.**

* * *

The characters in this story were not created by me and do not belong to me in any way, shape or form. They are the creations of the one and only Rumiko Takahashi. All hail! 

Thoughts in _italics_.

* * *

At the dinner table, Kasumi sipped slowly at her tea and prepared to take the initiative and pop the question. 

"So Ryoga-kun, what are your plans for yourself and Tenjou?" asked Akane.

Kasumi concealed her smile behind the steam from her cup, it was so nice to have such like-minded sisters.

"Plans?" Ryoga seemed surprised. "Well, travelling around like this has always seemed fine. I thought I'd just continue like this for a bit. I'll move on tomorrow and..."

The expression on the faces of the Tendo girls told him that this was the wrong answer.

"Uhhh..." he stuttered to a halt.

"That doesn't sound like a very settled existence." said Akane. Ryoga resisted the urge to say that it had served him well for years. "Why don't you just stay here... I mean, in one place?"

Ryoga fell over himself trying to explain that nowhere had really felt "right", like a home. The frowns on Akane and Kasumi's faces deepened. Once again, Ryoga got hold of himself and shut up.

Kasumi put her cup down, purpose in her every move. "Ryoga-kun, please accept our invitation to stay in our house for as long as you like."

"Oh... I couldn't possibly..." a look of horror etched itself on Ryoga's face. "I..."

"At least for a few days then," Kasumi pressed. Ryoga stared into the determination in her eyes and tried again.

"No, I really feel that Tenjou and I should move on tomorrow..."

"Sheesh! Ryoga, it used to be I couldn't get rid of you no matter what! Now we can barely hold on to you (which is not that different from the past really, but at least this time you mean to get lost). Stick around for a day or two. Sleep in. Do your laundry. Mend your socks. Spar with me - I'm getting a little rusty!" Ranma exploded. "There must be half a hundred domestic things you need to do. Teach the kid to read or something!"

Ryoga looked taken aback. "I'm couldn't possibly impose on you like this." he said.

"Why should you be any different from everyone else?" asked Nabiki.

"Hey!" said Ranma.

"He's right Ryoga," said Akane. "Stay for a while. You look all worn out." She held his hand. Ryoga looked bewildered, Ranma looked jealous.

"Yes, and Tenjou looks a little peaky." said Kasumi, going in for the kill. "Has he had all his shots? I could take him to Dr Tofu."

That settled it for Ryoga. He looked at his son. "He does look a little off-colour. Maybe some rest would be a good idea." He chewed his napkin thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that's right!" said Ranma.

"I agree!" said Akane, mentally reminding herself that on no account was she to let Dr Tofu near Tenjou whilst Kasumi was within a three-mile radius.

"Stick around," Ranma urged. "Catch up with all the others. Like Ukyou and... and..." he stumbled to a halt.

CRASH "NIHAO!"

"And Shampoo!" Ranma said. "See? Look Shampoo, Ryoga's back!"

"Who care about stupid lost boy?" Shampoo demanded. "Come to see airen!"

"And who is going to pay for this wall?" Demanded Akane.

As the fight began to break out, only Tenjou heard Nabiki murmur. "The same person that always pays for it Akane... me."

--

After Shampoo had been summarily, and somewhat unexpectedly, booted through the roof by Akane, peace resumed and dinner was finished by all (mostly by Nabiki though, who had kept eating through all the kafuffle). A short argument broke out during dessert over sleeping arrangements when it turned out that nearly everyone wanted Tenjou to stay with them.

It finally ceased when Ryoga overrode everyone and voted for both of them to double up in Ranma's room, since Mr Saotome wasn't home at the moment. He then announced it was Tenjou's bedtime and after much "goodnighting" and hugs (for Tenjou) he, Ranma and Tenjou wandered upstairs.

Ranma watched his old friend as he set out the bedding. He noted the movements, different, more hesitant than they used to be. Ryoga was constantly moving, always keeping Tenjou in sight. His moves were smooth and obviously the result of long practice, but they were noticeable. After the boy had been tucked in, Ryoga started to prepare for sleep himself. Ranma put a hand on his arm. "Talk with you?" he asked. Ryoga hesitated. Ranma stared into his eyes. "I swear it won't take long, then we'll turn in."

Ryoga nodded and followed Ranma down the corridor and through the house to the dojo.

"What's this about Ranma?" he asked. "I don't really feel like fighting right now?"

"That's okay," said Ranma. "You wouldn't be much of a challenge at the moment anyway. When was the last time you seriously, and I mean seriously, like when you learnt the bakusai tenketsu, trained?"

"About two weeks before Tenjou was born," Ryoga replied. "I didn't think it was obvious."

"It's not. You're mostly okay, but you're moving all wrong." Ranma said. "It's like a nervous tick or something. So give, what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Ryoga stood up. "If that's all..."

"Scared you'll lose the kid?" Ranma asked.

Silence.

Ryoga glared molten death at his oldest rival. "Ranma, if I weren't so tired I'd kill you."

"Ryoga," Ranma sighed. "If I thought you actually meant that I'd kill you, you pigheaded fool. I just wanted to say not to worry, we'll watch the kid if you get lost."

"And this is supposed to make me feel better!" Ryoga almost shouted. "You're all crazy! If I left Tenjou here, by the time I'd gotten back you'd have engaged him to someone or something!"

"I'd protect him!" Ranma said defensively.

"Doomed, DOOMED!"

"Hey shut up!" Ranma said, "It's not like this is all my fault."

Ryoga stopped being melodramatic and looked at him seriously. Ranma shifted uncomfortably.

"You know Ranma, I used to think it was all your fault. I blamed you for everything: my curse, Akane's ignoring me, the whole pet pig thing, all the other fiancees... But I don't think it was your fault anymore. The original situation with all the fiancees - that wasn't your fault. But I do think that you added to the problems by refusing to make a definite stand."

"What are you talking about?" Ranma demanded. "I've always made a definite stand. I didn't want this curse! I don't want to be engaged to any of these damn girls and I sure as heck don't want to have to marry one of them. And I NEVER wanted all these guys to attack me!"

"I understand that," said Ryoga. "Maybe I put it wrongly. What I'm saying is, you didn't ask for this. But you have it now, so what are you going to do about it? You're the only one that can stop this madness you know."

"Huh?"

"You live at the Tendos, you freeload off Shampoo and Ukyou when you want to eat, not to mention the way you use any of the others," Ryoga ticked off on his fingers. "Of course they're going to read it badly. If you really wanted to get rid of the girls you'd tell them straight out. Face them down! Sure they'd kick you around a bit, but we've both survived worse. Instead you lie around doing nothing and proclaiming innocence. All you're doing is prolonging the pain. These problems and fiancees aren't going to go away by themselves." _For some weird reason, _he thought to himself. "If you really want them gone you're going to have to be perfectly clear. None of this wavering when they look at you with big pitiful eyes." he delivered all of this whilst staring directly into Ranma's eyes.

Ranma looked away finally and made a waving motion with his hand. "Whoah, and I thought I was going to be the one chewing you out."

Ryoga grinned. "Maybe next time. It's nice to turn the tables for once," he said.

"Huh," said Ranma. "Want to turn in?"

"Yeah," Ryoga yawned. "Don't brush off what I said though, think about it."

"... Okay."

--

Konatsu hummed as he cleaned the grill. Ukyou glumly stared at the accounts for the day. "Hey Ukyou, can I switch my day off from Wednesday to tomorrow?" Konatsu asked.

"Damn it! Couldn't you give me more warning!" Ukyou demanded, throwing down her pen. "I can't disrupt plans at short notice you know!"

"I'm sorry Ukyou, I didn't know you had any plans," said Konatsu, instantly contrite.

"Well... I don't... but I might have had. Oh well, fine, sure, go ahead." said Ukyou. "Why do you want to change anyway, has something come up?" She picked up her pen again.

"Not really, I just wanted to visit the Tendo's and see little Tenjou Hibiki before he and Ryoga wander off." said Konatsu. "He's so cute! I thought I might take him a toy or something."

The pen snapped in Ukyou's hands. "How... thoughtful of you."

"It must be my maternal instinct." said Konatsu. Ukyou decided not to think about that comment.

"So, they're already planning to leave?" she asked casually.

"I don't know," said Konatsu. "But I got the impression that Ryoga's not keen on hanging around here."

"Grrrrrrr..."

"Besides, you know the lost boy... he'll probably wander off on his way to breakfast." said Konatsu, cleaning the rag. "Pity really, the little kid deserves a stable home life." He reflected back on his own life. "On the other hand, at least he's being brought up the right gender," he mused, brushing at his long hair.

Ukyou stared down at the accounts, which were now unreadable due to all the spilt ink. She felt terrible. _Stupid Ryoga._ She thought. _Stupid stupid stupid stupid..._

"Did you say something Ukyou?"

"No... What time were you planning to go over there?" she asked.

"A little after nine, why?"

"I think I'll come with you." said Ukyou. "I need to tell Ryoga something."

--

The next morning:

"Whoa whoa WHOOOOAAAAA!" Ryoga put up his hand. "WHAT did you say?"

Akane and Nabiki looked at him strangely. "Kasumi rang the doctor you mentioned last night," Nabiki said slowly and patiently, "and he said that Tenjou needs booster shots. So we're taking Tenjou to Dr Tofu."

"Bad idea," said Ryoga. "I'll take him."

Akane and Nabiki started laughing. "Okay, reality check," said Nabiki. "That is a patently ridiculous statement cos you'll never find the place."

"Then I'll come with you."

Nabiki sighed. "The only reason we are taking him is because we told Kasumi it was handy to drop in on the way to my morning classes. Akane has no morning classes today so she'll bring him back afterwards. If you come along it will seem like a group trip."

"So?"

"Do you REALLY want Kasumi along for a trip to Dr Tofu's during which he will be treating your son?"

Ryoga stuck for a moment. Panic flared in his eyes. "But..." he said desperately.

"Trust us Ryoga." said Nabiki. "It will all be fine."

Ryoga stared at her, then put his head in his hands. "I'm DOOMED!" A touch on his shoulder brought him to. Akane was smiling up at him.

"I understand that you're worried," Akane said. "Don't worry. We won't let him out of our sight. I promise."

Ryoga let out a breath, "Okay," he said. "But PLEASE be careful." He bit his lip and refrained from begging.

"We will," said Nabiki. "Later!"

Ryoga watched them walk down the front steps. It seemed so easy, he was tempted to follow. But he knew what would happen if he did. Slowly, he sat down on the front steps, to await their return.

--

"Hello!" sang Konatsu, opening the front yard doors.

Ryoga started. _Oh, it's only Konatsu._

"Hello Hibiki-kun," said Konatsu. "How are you?"

_... What's with him?_ "Fine thanks," said Ryoga in surprise.

Ukyou edged in behind Konatsu and Ryoga stiffened. "Morning Ukyou," he said.

"Morning." she said quietly.

Konatsu was scanning the yard. "Where's little Ten-chan?"

_?Ten-chan?_

"He uh, Akane and Nabiki took him to Doctor Tofu's," Ryoga replied.

Konatsu's face fell, "Oh darn, I wanted to see him again. He's so cute!"

_Erk!_

"What time will they be back?" Konatsu wanted to know.

"Not sure," Ryoga waved his hand in confusion. "An hour maybe?"

"Oh well, in that case I'll wait! I want to get a recipe off Kasumi-san anyway. Call me when he gets here!" Konatsu bounced off into the kitchen.

Ryoga and Ukyou faced each other. Ryoga took a deep breath.

"Look Ukyou, I'm sorry if I came across as a little cold yester..."

"MORON!"

Ryoga was taken aback. Ukyou glared at him.

"You're an idiot Ryoga! A fool! A moron! A dumbass!" she shouted. "Stupid stupid stupid STUPID RYOGA! There's something I want to say to you."

Ryoga looked apprehensive.

"I'm sorry I was rude about your son!" Ukyou yelled. Then she turned and ran off. Ryoga watched her go.

"O-kay... That was strange."

--

"Okay little fellow, now if you could just hold that bandage down firmly while I stick it down." Dr Tofu smiled at Tenjou as he ripped some surgical tape off a roll.

Tenjou's face was screwed up as he struggled with the stinging pain after an injection.

"There! Now, open your mouth and ahhhhh!" Dr Tofu popped a sweet into Tenjou's wide open mouth. The boy began to suck the lolly fiercely.

"Right, now you're all done." said Dr Tofu. "That wasn't so bad now, was it?" He ruffled Tenjou's hair. Akane and Nabiki grinned from their posts in the doorway. Tenjou had the softest hair. Healthy, fine, and a shining light brown in colour, it virtually begged to be ruffled and patted. As a result of this their trip across town to the Doctor's had been lengthened by all the people who wanted to say hello to the "little fellow". It was really quite amazing.

"He's all set now," said Dr Tofu, picking up the boy and handing him to Nabiki. "I'd like to see him in here tomorrow to make sure there's no delayed reaction to the shot, so I'll see you same time?"

"Sure thing," said Akane. "Thanks so much."

"Not a problem," said Dr Tofu. "That's what I'm here for." He patted Tenjou on the head. "It's funny to think that Ryoga has a child. I can still clearly remember dressing his wounds after one of his fights with Ranma," Dr Tofu laughed. "After a while, I started to think that he and Ranma would never get past that stage of their lives."

Akane and Nabiki sweatdropped as the Doctor laughed.

"Yeah, well, thank goodness ONE of them had the sense to grow up," said Nabiki. "I should probably get going, I'm going to be late to class." She handed Tenjou to Akane.

"See you later!" Akane called as her sister left. Then, after exchanging a few more pleasantries with Dr Tofu, she also took her leave. Halfway down the street Tenjou wriggled, indicating that he'd like to walk for a bit. Akane took firm hold of his hand and they walked together.

"Ah," said Akane. "It's such a nice sunny day."

"At last I've found you - evil fiend. Release my beloved Shampoo from your clutches!"

"What?" was all Akane managed before she was knocked out of the way by a flying blur.

Tenjou stared up at the man towering over him.

"Ranma Saotome, now you DIE!" Mousse launched himself at his most evil rival.

Tenjou stared bewilderedly as the man attacked him. He was just putting his hands up to protect himself when Akane malleted Mousse into the concrete footpath with extreme prejudice.

"You IDIOT!" she screamed. "You could have killed Tenjou!"

"Tenjou?" Mousse shook his head, resettled his glasses and stared at the boy. "Huh? Where'd Ranma go?"

Akane dropped the mallet and clenched her hands in fury. Red battle aura dripped off her.

"Ranma isn't here." she gritted. "Ranma never WAS here. Just me and Tenjou... you STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID..." she ran out of breath and had to take another "STUPID STUPID STUPID IDIOT! Why don't you LOOK before you attack! It's bad enough when you mistake one of us for each other, but involving a helpless boy!"

Mousse rubbed the bump on his head and held up his hands to try and hold her anger off. "Okay okay!" he said. "I'm sorry!" Mousse was a bit taken aback, "You're not usually this angry about it!"

"You don't usually attack four-year-old children," Akane shot back.

"I said I was sorry!" Mousse said defensively. He crouched down and regarded Tenjou. "I'm sorry little boy, did I scare you?"

Tenjou nodded briefly. Mousse sighed. "I really am sorry, let me buy you a meal to make up for it!"

"No thank you," said Akane. "We're leaving, come on Tenjou."

Tenjou patted Mousse's arm and then took Akane's hand.

"Wait! Please let me apologise!" Mousse pleaded.

Akane glared at him. "Why should I?"

Mousse stared at her, "I don't know... because you don't seem to think I feel bad about this?"

Akane stopped in her tracks. "Do you feel bad about this?"

Mousse paused. "Uh well, no one was hurt..."

"This time," snorted Akane.

"Okay okay I feel bad! Are you happy now?" Mousse demanded. "I feel guilty because I just attacked a child I don't even know. Now will you let me buy you a meal?"

Akane wavered, then sighed. "What do you think Tenjou?"

In answer, Tenjou relinquished her hand and reached over to grab Mousse's. Mousse easily lifted the boy up in his arms. "You're quite a tough little fellow aren't you? I bet you weren't really scared."

Tenjou gave Mousse one of his quick smiles. Mousse smiled back in response. "You're such a cute little boy! Is he a relative?" He asked Akane, turning and walking in the direction of the Cat Cafe.

"I wish," said Akane. "He's the son of a friend of the family."

"Anyone I know?"

Akane hid a grin. "Ryoga Hibiki... DON'T DROP HIM!"

--

Mousse served up a bowl of ramen. "Here you go, on the house!" He proclaimed.

"Since when did you give away free food?" Akane asked. "Won't Cologne kill you?"

Mousse looked embarrassed and produced a small purse from inside him voluminous sleeves. He dropped a number of coins on the table. "There, happy?" he demanded. "I was going to buy Shampoo some flowers with that!"

Akane laughed at him and split the chopsticks into two for Tenjou. "Oh look, a clean split. That's good luck." she told him. Then she turned back to Mousse, "Aren't you ever going to give up on Shampoo?" she inquired. "You know she doesn't return your love."

Mousse struck a pose, "One day, she'll realise that it was me she wanted all along."

"And this day would be sometime roughly after hell freezes over, right?" Akane inquired.

Tenjou grinned at Mousse's crestfallen expression. The martial artist shook his head. "She has to love me, she has to. I love her! I've never even looked at anyone else!"

"Knowingly," Akane muttered.

Mousse looked insulted. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means - I remember being embraced last week as someone shouted bad Chinese love poetry into my ear," said Akane.

Mousse blushed. "Okay, so I mistook you once..."

"AND Hikari told me about the time you fed her chocolates by the lake."

"That was Hikari? Then who was it that I gave the teddy bear to?" Mousse wondered.

"That nice old lady who was just performing a purification outside her house," said Akane. "Weren't you surprised to be hit by water?"

"Not really - Shampoo does it all the time."

"And it wasn't a teddy bear," Akane pressed onwards. "It was a toy gorilla!"

Mousse paused, "Oops. Alright alright, so I sometimes get a bit muddled up, but there's no harm done, right?"

Akane sniffed, "Tell that to Tenjou! Not to mention Nabiki's friend Nanami!"

"Who? What did I do to her?" Mousse demanded. Akane stared at him.

"You KISSED her. In front of the entire SCHOOL!"

"I NEVER!" Mousse denied.

"You DID! We have photographs! The poor girl was shocked. Bad enough to get kissed for the FIRST time ever IN PUBLIC in front of the ENTIRE SCHOOL, but to have the guy who did it then swear his everlasting devotion to someone else..." Akane trailed off. "Honestly, didn't you wonder why all the girls hunted you down and lynched you?"

Mousse was bright red. "I really - did that?"

"YES!"

"I thought it was Shampoo!" he burst out. "I thought..."

"YOU THOUGHT WRONG!" Akane yelled.

"Well, I couldn't see..."

"No, you never can, can you?" Akane said rudely. "Why don't you get some stronger glasses or SOMETHING?"

Mousse was bright red and sweating profusely as the enormity of his act sunk in.

"I didn't know, I mean... I didn't mean..."

"Nihao!"

Tenjou turned from the fascinating conversation taking place over his head to look at the woman who walked in the door.

"Shampoo!" said Mousse. He rushed to her side, then paused. "Umm... that is Shampoo, right!"

"Of course it Shampoo," Shampoo stared at him. "Who else?"

"With his eyesight, it could have been anyone," Akane said. "But in this case, he was right. It is Shampoo."

"SHAMPOO!" Mousse rushed to embrace her... and tripped over a table.

"OW! Who put that there?" He demanded.

"Table ALWAYS been there," said Shampoo. "You stop being silly Mousse. Go clean kitchen." She looked across the cafe and glared at Akane. "What violent tomboy doing in Nekohanten?" she demanded. "Where airen?"

"Who knows, who cares?" Akane responded. "And as for what I'm doing in here, I'm helping Tenjou eat his food."

Tenjou took that as his cue to turn back to his as-yet untouched ramen. He slurped a bit. Mmmm... delicious!

Shampoo sneered at Akane. "Violent tomboy borrowing someone's boy to try and look cuter. She fail!"

"I don't have to put up with this," Akane said angrily. "I only came to accept Mousse's apology. Just make the dumb ramen to go and we can get out of here."

Tenjou hurriedly slurped down more ramen, foreseeing imminent trouble.

"Beeeeeeuuugh!" Shampoo stuck her tongue out at Akane. "Violent girl get out of Nekohanten!"

"Not until we eat the food we paid for," Akane shot back, making an abrupt about turn on her previous claims. But dammit, Shampoo got her back up so much... "We have just as much right to be here as any other customer."

"The food who paid for?"

"SHUT UP MOUSSE!" they both snapped.

Shampoo put her hands on her hips. "Violent tomboy get out, or MAKE get out."

"In your own words, beeeeeeeuuugh!" replied Akane, sticking her tongue out at Shampoo.

Shampoo grinned nastily. "If won't run from Shampoo, then run AFTER Shampoo!" Darting forward, she grabbed Akane's handbag.

"HEY! Give that back!"

"Come get!" Shampoo taunted. "Maybe I throw in river!" She jumped upwards to avoid Akane's mallet, kicked it up hard as it passed to create a hole in the roof, leapt through it and ran off along the rooftops.

Akane glowered, and was about to set out after her rival, but remembered who else was with her and stopped.

"Oh... rats!" she said. "I can't go after her... YIPE!"

The forgotten Mousse stood up behind her and threw his arms around her.

"Shampoo, I've got you safe! Come with me and we'll stop her! I'll get your bag back, I swear it!"

"Put me down!" Akane yelled as Mousse scooped her up. "You idiot! Tenjou!" Mousse hopped on to a table, then through the hole, and zoomed off into the distance in hot pursuit of Shampoo, with Akane kicking and screaming all the way.

Tenjou listened as they receded, then turned back and finished his ramen. Just as he was slurping up the last of it, and old woman hopped into the cafe on a stick.

"Well hello there young man," said Cologne. "I hope you paid for that."

Tenjou nodded and pointed at the money still on the counter.

"I see. Who served you? Where is my granddaughter? And where is that slacker Mousse?"

Tenjou pointed eloquently at the hole in the roof.

Cologne sighed. "And the person looking after you?"

The finger remained pointed at the ceiling.

Cologne shook her head and hopped off her stick. "Those two should know better by now than to involve passer-by's in their quarrels." Standing next to the boy, she was surprised to find they were the same height. "I'm sure they'll be back soon." she assured him. "In the meantime, why don't I teach you some martial arts?"

Tenjou immediately began some stretching exercises.

"Oh ho, so you've already begun some training. Good good." Cologne hopped back a bit. "Well, come on boy, show me what you've got."

Tenjou finished and took a deep breath, then attacked. Cologne easily avoided his attacks, muttering a running assessment as she did so.

"Unusually good coordination - must have had the proper exercises done when he was a baby. Just as well. Hmmm... fairly standard and simple attack patterns. Heavy on the defensive as well I see... well, he is just a child at the moment. Good heavens, do that again."

Tenjou paused and then repeated the last move.

"Tai chi?" Cologne looked surprised. "I hadn't thought of that. But I suppose the balance training will be useful later in your life. Hmm... Well boy, you've got promise."

Tenjou bowed. Cologne rather amusedly bowed back. "Let's see. Martial arts training, quiet, not bad looking, polite... come back in about ten years boy, and I'll make you a man worthy of an Amazon woman. In the meantime though, practice this kick." She demonstrated the sweep kick for him and then made him go through it several times. "You'll find it a useful move. Now are you still hungry?"

Tenjou nodded shortly.

"Then have some of this pork bun." Cologne hopped out to the kitchen, grabbed one and handed it to him.

Tenjou looked at it, felt it, sniffed it, then split it in half and handed half to her. Cologne raised an eyebrow. "Did you find something wrong with it?" she enquired curiously.

A shake of the head was her answer.

"Well, I don't want any of it boy, you go ahead and eat," she said, pressing it back into his hands.

Tenjou stubbornly held out half of it for her.

"I told you I don't want it!" Cologne snapped.

Tenjou put both pieces on a plate and pushed it away from him. Cologne was surprised, and then she burst out laughing.

"Oh, and intelligent too!" she took the pork bun away. "It wasn't really harmful," she said. "Just some herbs I wanted to test out."

Tenjou looked disapproving. Then his stomach growled.

Still laughing, Cologne hopped into the kitchen and returned with another pork bun which she halved. The two of them ate in happy silence. Then Cologne returned to the problem of what to do with her mysterious guest.

"So then, would you like to play a game?" asked Cologne. "Have you ever played mah jong?"

And it was thus that on Akane's panicked return with Shampoo and Mumu-chan the duck that they were greeted by the incongruous sight of Cologne patiently teaching Tenjou Hibiki how to play mah jong.

End of Part Two

* * *


	3. Part Three

* * *

**Ranma 1/2: Catalyst  
Part Three: Friendships**   
**by Jaelle.**

* * *

The characters in this story were not created by me and do not belong to me in any way, shape or form. They are the creations of the one and only Rumiko Takahashi. All hail!

Thoughts in _italics_.

* * *

Nabiki strode through the corridors of Furinkan College and drew all her courage around her. She knew she'd need it. Head high and back straight, she walked. And then they began.

"There she goes again, look at everyone tremble."

"She enjoys the fear."

The whispers, as always. The voices that you could hear around you but never pin down the owners of. Nabiki had learned to ignore them, but today her lessons of the past failed, and for the first time in a long time, she listened.

"Look at her, thinks she's so special."

"No one would cross her. She could really get you."

"Damn tyrant. You know she had Yaegashi in tears last week."

"Bitch!"

"I know. And then she charged Hikaru 14,000 yen for naked pictures of this girl he liked."

_Not true_, thought Nabiki. _It was 6,000. And the girl was in a bikini._

"Oh my gosh... how can she call herself a woman? Hasn't she ever been in love?"

"Are you kidding, her heart shrivelled up years ago."

_Wish it had, then it wouldn't be hurting so much right now._

"Who'd want her anyway? Even tapeworms have standards."

"Yeah... and morals. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

_And now the laughter. The laughter's the worst part_. Nabiki strode on, face expressionless.

--

Sniff... sob...

Kuno paused just inside the threshold as the sound of tears reached him. Who on earth would be crying in the kendo dojo? All the other team members should be in class right now. He shrugged and reached for his bokken. None of his business.

SOB!

Kuno put the bokken back and looked around for the source. That had been a feminine sob. It was now officially his business. Kuno disliked the tears of women. It was dishonourable to cause them and unchivalrous to ignore them. He resolved to find the source of these tears, discover their cause and, if required, beat the living snot out of whoever had made this woman cry in HIS domain! He peeked behind a changing screen and was shocked at who he saw sitting on a rolled up mat.

"Nabiki Tendo?" he said incredulously.

"Ah!" Nabiki wiped her face. "Kuno baby, you shouldn't sneak up on people like that!" Her face crumpled and she wiped it furiously. "What's up?"

"I was just about to ask you that self-same question," said Kuno. "What upsets you?"

"Oh nothing... nothing..." Nabiki waved his query away airily, sniffing furiously. Kuno paused, looked around and joined her on the mat. She smiled nastily at him.

"Don't want to be seen with me huh?"

"No... No it's not like that!"

Nabiki laughed harshly. "Can't say as I blame you really, who'd want to be seen with Nabiki, the Bitch HellQueen of Furinkan College?"

"Who said that about thee? I shall smite them!" Kuno said, startled.

"Right. Thanks Kuno. Remind me to give you a discount on your next purchase," Nabiki turned away.

"That's... not why I said it." said Kuno.

"I know I know," Nabiki sighed. "Thank you. Your offer is appreciated, but not neccessary."

Kuno paused. His eyes narrowed. "Of course not, after all, if you really wanted someone pounded, you could go to your sister Akane, or even... Ranma Saotome. Why bother with Tatewaki Kuno, the wannabe champion of Furinkan College?"

"Hey wha?" Nabiki turned and stared at him. "I've never heard you admit to that!"

Kuno's mouth twisted sourly.

She blushed bright red.

He sighed. "Oh I've heard the voices. 'Oh look, there's Kuno the thick-skulled.' 'Watch out, here comes bonehead Kuno'. 'Even Kuno could have answered that question.' 'Hey, let's watch Kuno get beaten up by Ranma again.'"

Nabiki winced; some of those quotes had been hers.

Kuno saw.

"Oh I don't mind you saying them Nabiki. You've always said them to my face. Not whispered them across the courtyard like a coward. Or behind my back, as though that made you a hero."

"You get the whispers too?" Nabiki asked. "I didn't know!"

Kuno leant against the changing screen. "Oh yes, over the years I've learned to tune them out. But sometimes..." he sighed. "It is... disquietening."

"I always acted deaf," said Nabiki. "But today..."

Kuno nodded sympathetically. "I have always acted as though my family name could shield me from the insults. Why let those cowardly insects get to me? If they had any courage or honour they would face me in battle. Or stand up to me as you do. Instead they hide, and sneer at my attempts to be better than they are."

A hand on his arm. "You do a good job of it Kuno," said Nabiki.

Kuno sniffed arrogantly, "I will admit to you Nabiki Tendo that I am not overburdened with intelligence."

Nabiki restrained the strong urge to nod in agreement.

"But I have always tried to act with honour." He continued. "Perhaps that is an outmoded concept, but I would not let it die lightly."

"No... I guess you wouldn't." said Nabiki. She patted his arm. "Wanna go get some lunch with me?"

"It's only 9.30."

"So we'll make it an early lunch."

Kuno looked like he wanted to be convinced. "I have to go to math class," he said reluctantly.

"Kuno, in all honesty, you'll never pass that class in a million years."

"Thank you, Nabiki," he said sarcastically. "I knew I could count on you to prop up my self-image and provide me comfort in my hour of need."

Nabiki laughed. "Hey you know me, I'll do anything to get what I want!" She pulled him to his feet. "Come on, let's go."

"I don't have any money on me."

"That's okay," said Nabiki.

"Really?" asked Kuno in surprise.

"You can pay me back later."

Laughing, they left.

--

Back at the Nekohanten:

"Ryoga's son?" asked Cologne. "What a shock that is. But it would explain the training," she watched as Tenjou ran to fetch a mah jong piece that Mumu-chan had knocked off the table. "And I see he doesn't suffer from the Hibiki family curse."

Akane nodded. "He's quite normal - except for the fact that he doesn't talk."

"Personally, I find that rather appealing," said Cologne. "It's nice to be able to finish a sentence."

"Strange to think that lost boy has child," said Shampoo.

"If you had just gotten son-in-law to propose when you first arrived here you would already have several children," Cologne snapped. "I'm beginning to wonder if there's even going to be a next generation of Amazon warriors."

Shampoo looked surprised, then resolute. "Soon Shampoo get Ranma to admit his love for her, then they get married and have lots and lots of children, even cuter than lost boy's son!" she proclaimed confidently.

"QUACK!" objected Mumu-chan.

"Huh," said Cologne. "Perhaps you'd better speed up your timetable if you want to come up with some rivals for young master Hibiki here."

"Yeah, right," said Akane under her breath. "Speaking of which, I should take him back home. Ryoga gets really jumpy when Tenjou's not around."

"And Ryoga's not the most stable of personalities," agreed Cologne. "Perhaps you should get going then. Now remember what I taught you child," she said to Tenjou. "Practice that kick over and over till you've got it right!"

Tenjou nodded and then bowed formally to her. Akane smiled and held out her hand, which he took. She walked to the door, paused, turned and bowed to the group.

"Thanks for the ramen Mousse!" she said. "And for looking after Tenjou, Cologne. Have a nice day!"

Then smiling, she headed off again.

Cologne watched her go, then switched her gaze to Tenjou. Shampoo watched her, and noticed the longing glance she gave the boy.

_I WILL get Ranma to marry me, and all of OUR children will be much MUCH stronger and much MUCH cuter than Tenjou. Except they'll be girls, of course._

--

Back at the dojo, Ryoga was indeed fretting. "They've been gone hours!" he wailed.

"One hour and a half," said Ranma. "Will you calm down?"

"An hour and a half is all it takes!" Ryoga wailed. "I'll never see my son again! He's probably been kidnapped to be raised as a girl! Or hit by a car! Or the curse has kicked in and he'll be lost forever! Or sold into slavery, dropped into the pools at Jusenkyo, eaten by giant man-eating octopi... Drugged! Kidnapped! Murdered! ENGAGED!"

"ENOUGH!" yelled Ranma. "Enough already! Stop panicking damn you, you're starting to freak ME out! Look, I've been doing stuff like that all my life and MY pop never worried."

Ryoga shot Ranma a look that was more eloquent than words.

"You have a point," Ranma admitted. "Come on, let's go spar before you start hyperventilating again."

"I don't want to," growled Ryoga.

"Piggy piggy piggy."

"That's NOT going to work Ranma!"

"Oh come on," said Ranma. "Please?"

Ryoga hesitated. "Oh alright," he said grumpily. "But if they're not back in another hour..."

"We'll tear up the entire town looking for them, I promise," said Ranma. "Now, follow me. No Ryoga, I'm walking THIS way."

--

In the dojo, Ranma pulled back from one of Ryoga's punches and jumped away. He stared at the man he'd always privately considered his only real rival. _Hmmm, his strength is the same, his toughness too - he hasn't practiced in a long time though, and I've learnt a lot of new tricks. But... he's really thinking about what he's doing. Strategising and stuff. And more, he's..._

Ranma launched into a flurry of blows, including a vicious nasty punch aimed at Ryoga's groin. Ryoga either took, blocked or avoided the punches and pulled back. Ranma stopped and looked at him hard. _I'm not feeling any..._

"You sick or something?" he asked. "I'm not getting any battle aura off you at all."

"I'm fine," said Ryoga. "Come on, you wanted to do this." He attacked again. Ranma dodged easily.

"No seriously," he said. "You're not putting yourself into this. If this is what married life does to a person I think I'm well out of it."

Ryoga dropped out of fighting stance and glared at him. "Now there's an attitude that says everything about you," he said.

Ranma frowned, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Everything requires a price if you want the rewards." said Ryoga. "Maybe I'm not as good a fighter as I used to be. But I'd give up all my martial arts skills and be a weakling like Gosunkugi in a second if I could go back to being a married man instead of..." he controlled himself.

_And that was what was wrong_, Ranma realised. _I was spot on the other night - he's controlled now, TOO controlled. Every time his battle aura starts up he squashes it down again - internalises it. The old Ryoga never bothered reining in his emotions - ever! It was part of his strength! Part of all our strengths. But now he handicaps himself everytime he throws a punch because he's... he's... _

_Afraid_.

And with that realisation, Ranma felt real fear for his friend.

--

Nabiki sipped carefully from the steaming hot mug of coffee. Ucchan's and the Nekohanten were all very well for food and tea, but when what you wanted was a decent cup of coffee nobody but NOBODY beat Kohei-Coffee.

Kuno stirred his cup of hot chocolate. "So..." he felt at a loss. He didn't normally engage in small talk with Nabiki. Or anyone else for that matter. Usually he just talked about, well, himself. He tried to remember some of the polite rules about chatting. "How is everything at the Tendo household?"

"Oh, pretty much the same as usual," said Nabiki. "Chaos incarnate, money running out the door like water, constant arguing... It's a case of 'Fighting and mallets and cooking - oh my!'."

Kuno laughed involuntarily. "Sounds like life at Chateau Kuno," he said. "Except no mallets."

Nabiki grinned. "But more poison."

"Ack," Kuno made a face. "Please don't remind me. I won't eat ANYTHING now unless Kodachi eats some first." He sighed. "As head of the Kuno clan, my role in life sometimes weighs heavily upon me."

"Wait a second, what about your father? Isn't he the head of the family?"

"Surely thou dost jest. Allow coconut trees into the ancient family home? I think not!"

Nabiki surprised both of them by giggling. "Actually, things haven't been that bad at home for the last day or two," she said, stirring her coffee. "I think we're all in shock after the revelation that Ryoga has a son."

"That would make things WHAT!" Kuno stood up abruptly, his chair falling backward. Hot chocolate slopped all over the table and began to spill over the edge.

"HEY!" Nabiki yelled as hot chocolate dripped onto her skirt. She mopped at it feebly until Kuno grabbed her shoulders.

"That... that insolent Hibiki whelp has a child!" He shouted. "How... why... WHO!"

"Uh, with his wife..." said Nabiki.

"WIFE! This cad dares sully the honour of a married... oh wait, they were married?"

"YES!" said Nabiki. "If you'd just listen..."

"How dare he recklessly abandon his wife like..."

"And we're off..." said Nabiki as Kuno began to rant again. Her hands clenched as something in her stomach twisted and coiled. _Dammitall to hell!_

"SHUT UP!"

Kuno shut up and stared at her. Nabiki lowered her voice and hissed at him.

"Now you listen to me you moronic imbecile. Ryoga has been away for six years..."

"Has it really been..."

"YES IT HAS!" she took a deep breath. "During his time away, he got married and fathered a child. Shortly afterward his wife was killed in a car accident. He and Tenjou are now wandering around together and we are trying to convince them to settle down in Nerima. Now will you PLEASE stop over-reacting!"

Kuno nodded, righted his chair and sat down slowly. "Very well. I'm sorry. I didn't realise you felt so strongly about this."

"Neither did I," Nabiki muttered, dabbing at her skirt again. "Dammit, this stain'll never come out!" Her eyes began to blur. "This is a new skirt! It was quite expensive." Tears began to roll down her face.

"Dammit dammit dammit!" She gave up on the skirt and grabbed her coffee mug.

"Umm..." Kuno felt helpless as he watched Nabiki's face crumple. He'd known Nabiki a long time. They'd gone through the school system together - from kindergarten to primary school through junior and senior high and now college. Until they had picked different majors he'd never been in a class without her, and he had to admit it felt strange not to have someone making sarcastic remarks to him all day long. He'd been so relieved when he heard that she'd decided to stay on an extra year for higher studies after he'd failed all his courses last time round. Almost twenty years they'd known each other. And in all that time, he'd never seen her so... emotional.

He carefully leant forward and covered her hands with his.

"I'm... sorry about your skirt." he said. "I'll buy you a new one - no, two new ones!" He took a deep breath and followed a guess. "And don't worry about all those gutless wonders at college. You're better than they are. You don't need them!"

Nabiki sobbed a bit longer and then sniffed once. She looked up at Kuno and smiled feebly. "Thanks Kuno-baby," she said. "I... appreciate you saying that."

Phew. Kuno breathed out.

Nabiki sniffed again, and he released her hands so that she could dry her eyes.

"I'm really sorry about falling apart like that," she apologised as she fished around in her purse for a tissue. "I guess I'm a little off-balance today. It's just... just..."

Kuno began to panic as the tears started up again.

"Oh," Nabiki sobbed. "He's the sweetest little boy I've ever seen. Whenever I see him I melt, and it's not just me, every other female near him goes ga-ga too, thank goodness, or I'd be so humiliated. And I just think, maybe it would be nice to have one of my own. And then I hear everyone at school saying how horrible I am, and I think I'll grow up to be some horrible old crone, all alone with noone at all, in some big empty house with noone to talk to... and... and..."

She collapsed into tears again. Kuno tried to talk her out of it but nothing seemed to be working.

_Hysterical_, he thought as he dragged her out of the cafe, everyone staring at them. _Got to get her away from other people, calm her down_. He pulled her into an alley.

"Hey buddy, making your girl cry? Maybe she needs a real man," snickered a voice behind him. Kuno turned and reduced the slimeball standing behind him to a cowering puddle with one razor-sharp glare.

"Get lost creep!" he ordered, kicking the man away. "Go crawl into the hole that spawned you!"

Nabiki started to scream.

"No... I wasn't talking to you... Nabiki... Nabiki you have to snap out of it!" Kuno shook her. "NABIKI!"

He kissed her.

Nabiki's eyes flew open in surprise as Kuno clutched her to him. She struggled but he'd already clasped his arms around her and was not letting go. Eventually her eyes closed again, until finally he broke the kiss.

"Kuno..." she breathed.

"Ummm... ummm... are you alright?" he asked. "You were hysterical." Kuno looked down at her. Nabiki rested her head against his chest and hiccuped, tears still dripping down her face.

"I... uh..." Kuno's face turned scarlet. "I..."

"I know," said Nabiki. "It's okay. I won't read anything into this. And though I appreciate it, you could have slapped me."

"It's just that... I didn't want to... hit a girl," said Kuno.

Nabiki sniffled. "Thanks." she said.

"It's okay."

--

At the Tendo Dojo:

After another attempt to continue the sparring, both Ryoga and Ranma agreed to stop for a while. Ranma watched his friend pick up a towel and decided it was now or never. But he had to be...

What was that word again? Dammit, it was on the tip of his tongue... Oh yeah.

Subtle.

"So," he said easily. "Tell me about married life."

"Not much to tell," said Ryoga warily.

"Well, tell me about your wife then," said Ranma, noting the way Ryoga's shoulders bunched up when he said that. "Or how about Tenjou as a child?"

After being bored almost to death by stories about wriggling toes and picking out the perfect baby carriage, Ranma tried again.

"Does he take after his mother much? What was her name again? Kyoko?"

"Keiko! Keiko Asagira!"

"Yeah, Keiko. So, did you love her?"

Ryoga paused. His face softened. "I think so. When we were married, I was happy because I had a home to go to, a normal family life I'd never thought could be mine. We grew to know each other, to care for each other. I called her dear, she called me honey. I worked hard, tried as hard as I ever have not to get lost for too long, and I always wrote when I was lost. I liked her. And after Tenjou was born I worshipped her, because she had given me the greatest gift ever. Children are a gift Ranma. I hope that someday you and... and whoever have many." Ryoga paused. "I think that that's a kind of love."

"And... when the accident." Ranma probed gently.

"When the accident happened I was so sad. Sad that her life had been cut short. Sad that I never really got the chance to tell her how much I cared for her and sad that she would never see her son grow up. But mostly I was grieving for my son, who would never know his mother. We were both devastated." Ryoga took a deep breath. "And that's when it happened."

"What?" Ranma was surprised, and a little uncomfortable.

Ryoga looked at him with tears in his eyes. "That's when I committed murder." A familiar green glow surrounded him.

Ranma breathed in, and then let the breath out very slowly. "The Shi-Shi-Hokodan."

Ryoga nodded. "I was half-mad with pain, grief, fear... and anger. I wanted the bastard who took my wife and my life and my son's mother away from me DEAD! So I... so I killed him. The blast took out his car. I saw his eyes as it was coming." A vein throbbed in his forehead. "He didn't know what was happening, but he knew what it meant."

Ryoga put his head in his hands. Ranma stared at him.

"The authorities said it was the fuel tank catching fire that caused the car to explode like that. They told me I was lucky to survive. LUCKY!" He took a deep, shuddering breath. "How often have I said I would kill someone? How often have I sworn I'd kill you?" His body racked with sobs. "All the times we fought... if you had been any less good a martial artist..."

"BULL&(!" said Ranma. Ryoga looked at him in shock. Ranma was on his feet standing over him, fists clenched.

"How often have I said I'd kill you? How many times have we battled and hurt each other? A hundred? A thousand? AND WHEN HAVE WE EVER DONE MORE THAN BRUISE EACH OTHER!" Ranma grabbed Ryoga's shoulders and dragged him to his feet, staring deeply into his eyes.

"Do you remember when I was weak from the moxibustion attack by Happosai? How all the other guys attacked me? And how you saved me. You took on Mousse, Kuno, AND Principal Kuno to save my life. That was not the act of a murderer! And what about the time you got that invincible tattoo stuck on you, and how I helped you? We fought a lot Ryoga. We fought because we were young, because we were arrogant, because we both wanted the same thing and finally because we were both in love with the same woman... we fought for life Ryoga. We never EVER fought for death."

Ranma threw both his arms around one of his oldest friends and hugged him as hard as he could. "And THAT is why you are not a murderer. You were hurt, in body and in spirit. Grief-stricken because of what had happened and desperately afraid for your son. You struck out unconciously. It was NOT your fault." He hugged his friend tightly whilst Ryoga sobbed into his shoulder. "It's okay, you're among friends now," he soothed. "You're back with your family, where you belong."

--

End of Part Three

* * *


	4. Part Four

**Ranma 1/2: Catalyst**  
**Part Four: Epiphanies**  
**by Jaelle.**

* * *

The characters in this story were not created by me and do not belong to me in any way, shape or form. They are the creations of the one and only Rumiko Takahashi. All hail!

Thoughts in _italics_.

* * *

Ranma lay on his back on the roof of the dojo and shaded his eyes.

Akane and Tenjou had finally returned, much to his relief. After Ryoga's revelations, Ranma had sat by him for a while, then gotten him to take a relaxing bath, after which Ryoga had been calm again.

Then he'd realised that Tenjou's "hour long trip" had turned into two and a half hours.

Ryoga had been on the verge of a complete mental breakdown, and only his newfound hard-won control over his depression powers had prevented the pair returning to a large smoking crater. His sobbing over Tenjou had been quite a sight to see - he'd outdone Soun Tendo at his worst. Akane had apologised profusely for the delay, citing traffic problems, a queue at the Doctors and a hungry child - all of which was more or less true.

Ryoga had waved all her apologies away and, exhausted from all the emotion, had gone to take a nap whilst Konatsu, newly emerged from the kitchen and bubbling over with enthusiasm, played with Tenjou. They'd all been a bit nervous about this, but Konatsu had sworn a solemn vow that "dress-up" would not be included in the games, and Akane decided to stick around and monitor them.

However, just before she'd accompanied Konatsu and Tenjou to the park, Akane had told Ranma the full story.

Ranma was pissed.

Damn that stupid Mousse, and Shampoo too! What was she thinking? At least Mousse had the excuse of being as blind as a bat and twice as stupid, but how could she justify hassling Akane like that? It really worried and annoyed him when the "fiancees" all went after each other. He wasn't a pet pig to be fought over. It was all so stupid.

"You're the only one that can stop this madness you know." Ryoga's words echoed in his ears. "Instead you lie around doing nothing and proclaiming innocence. All you're doing is prolonging the pain. These problems and fiancees aren't going to go away by themselves."

Ranma thought over Ryoga's words and had to concede that to a degree they were true. He wasn't solving the situations, just trying to avoid them. Sticking his head in the sand, or "turning panda" as he privately called that practice - he was acting just like his father.

Ugh, what a horrible thought.

Ranma hoped Kasumi would call him in for food soon, he needed something to take his mind off this. But lunch was still two hours away. However, from the smells he could scent, it was going to be a feast fit for a king! Ramen and pork buns... Mmmmmm...

_Funny, I thought I saw Kasumi working on smoked fish._

"Nihao!"

Ranma groaned and sat up.

"Aiya!" Shampoo bounced into his lap. "Airen want too-too delicious ramen and pork buns? For free! Is good, you eat, yes?"

Ranma twisted, trying to loosen her grip around his neck. Shampoo squealed into his ear. Ranma growled.

"Shampoo, what are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Come to give husband good meal, like good wife." said Shampoo. She released one hand, grabbed behind her, and held out a pork bun to him. "Say aaaaahhh!"

More of Ryoga's words echoed back at him. "You freeload off Shampoo and Ukyou when you want to eat, it's no wonder they read it the wrong way."

"I don't want it!" said Ranma, pushing the bun away.

Shampoo was surprised. She hadn't slipped anything into Ranma's meals lately, so this refusal to eat had her mystified. She narrowed her eyes and bent forward, giving him a better look at her beauty. She'd spent an hour getting all the make-up just right. She was fresh, gorgeous and dressed to kill. She'd already caused three traffic accidents on the way over (although the second one had been caused by her cutting in front of a car on her bicycle) so why wasn't he reacting? He wasn't even blushing or stammering.

"Airen eat, yes!" she said, once more proffering the bun.

Ranma's stomach growled. Then he remembered what Akane had said Shampoo had done.

"I said I don't want any!" Ranma stood up, but Shampoo refused to let go of him.

"Let go of me Shampoo!" he said. "I really mean it."

Shampoo frowned, this was not going as she planned. Usually Ranma was a stuttering stammering fool by this time. Either that or he was eating like he'd been starved for a week.

"But wife make special food just for husband," she perservered. "Is good, is no spiced. Is just way you like it." She pouted.

Ranma reached up, grabbed her hands, dragged them apart, stepped back and pushed Shampoo away from him. "Stop it Shampoo. No means no. I don't want your food." He felt his temper grow. Why wouldn't any of them ever listen to him? He already felt bitter from his conversations with Ryoga and now he could feel a headache coming on.

"I don't want it." he said. "Thanks, but no thanks."

"But..." Shampoo was stubborn too. "Is too-too delicious..."

"Dammit Shampoo," Ranma exploded. "When are you going to let it rest. I said no, I don't want any of your 'too-too delicious meal'. And can't you say it plainly? It's always 'Ranma eat too-too delicious hot ramen, special cook!' or 'Ranma go to date with Shampoo?' You've lived here six years! Couldn't you at least TRY to speak Japanese properly?" He was being unfair, he knew it, but it was all just so frustrating.

Shampoo was utterly bewildered. This was unprecedented.

Ranma turned away from her. "I think you'd better go Shampoo, I don't feel like talking to you right now." He hopped off the roof, leaving an extremely confused, and now frightened, Amazon woman behind.

Shampoo stared at the point on the roof where Ranma had been. She could still feel his hands like iron bands around her wrists. He'd never just shaken her loose like that. Never!

Something was badly wrong.

"What go wrong?" she wondered aloud. "Why Ranma..."

"Why... did Ranma say that?"

--

"Kasumi, do we have any aspirin?" Ranma demanded, walking into the kitchen. "My head is splitting!"

"There's some in the cupboard by the fridge," Kasumi answered. "Was that Shampoo I heard just before?"

Ranma grunted as he poked around in the cupboard. "She wanted me to eat her food and couldn't understand me when I said I didn't want it. Am I really that much of a glutton?" He found the aspirin, shook two out of the packet and dry-swallowed them. Then he took in the silence.

"Kasumi?"

"Well you know Ranma," said Kasumi. "You do tend to be somewhat indiscriminate when food is the subject." She calmly continued to prepare lunch. "And you're always so hungry. I suppose it's because you work out all the time. Still, it wouldn't hurt to slow down your eating a little bit. It's a pity your mother never got to teach you proper table manners. If only your father would set a better example."

Ranma was flabberghasted. Those were the most condemning words he'd ever heard come from Kasumi's mouth. And yet again he'd been compared to his father.

"Argh!" he yelled, and stomped off.

Kasumi paid no attention and continued to prepare the vegetables. This was normal Ranma behaviour, nothing to worry about. So she was somewhat surprised when a few minutes later, Ranma stuck his head back in the kitchen door.

"Uh, Kasumi...?"

"Yes?" she asked.

"Er... thanks. You know, for the aspirin and... for the aspirin."

"That's alright!" Kasumi smiled at him in genuine pleasure, and Ranma found himself smiling back. He left again and walked down the corridor to his room.

_Wow, that's good aspirin. My headache's gone already._

He whistled jauntily as he went.

--

"Do you want to go higher?" Konatsu asked.

Tenjou grinned widely at him.

"Okay then... heave!"

Akane watched in amazement as Konatsu fussed over Tenjou, pushing him higher and higher on the swings, cheering him on on the climbing bars, pushing him on the roundabout, and generally running around after him. Tenjou was absolutely thrilled, but he didn't look half as radiant as Konatsu did.

Konatsu looked... beautiful.

_This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen_, she thought. _And that is really saying something!_

Akane wasn't the only one watching Konatsu. A young mother with two small toddlers came up and smiled at the ninja.

"Your oldest?" she asked.

"Oh, he's not mine," said Konatsu. "I'm just spending some time with him while his parent takes a break!"

"You're so kind!" the woman said. "It's a pity her husband isn't as nice as you. It's so hard looking after a child by yourself." she bowed to Konatsu. "Well, having watched you I'm sure you'll make a fantastic mother yourself someday!"

"Oh thank you!" Konatsu waved goodbye to the woman.

THUD!

Konatsu turned in surprise to see Akane collapsed on the ground. "Akane-san, are you alright?"

Akane twitched. _That woman. How dare she! Poor Ryoga exhausts himself trying to care for his son and she automatically assumes he's no help at all. And Konatsu_ _a mother... That really WOULD be fantastic!_

"Uh, I'm fine..." she said, sitting up. "So, are you two going to let me play too?"

Tenjou giggled briefly and grabbed her hand.

"OOooh! I know!" said Konatsu. "Let's go on the see-saw. Akane, you take Tenjou and sit on one end, and I'll sit on the other."

"Okay!" Akane scooped Tenjou up and sat on the end of the see-saw. Once they were settled, Konatsu agiley hopped onto the other end. The see-saw trembled... and and didn't move - leaving Konatsu dangling in the air and Akane and Tenjou firmly planted on the ground.

"..." said Akane.

"Ummm..." said Konatsu. "Tenjou's weight is probably too much for me..." He ran out of words and groped for a way to get out of this situation.

Akane wished the ground would open up below her and swallow her forever. First the earlier compliments to Konatsu, and now this.

"Heh..." she managed weakly. "It's all the wonderful recipes you've been giving Kasumi." She swallowed hard. Tears began to form in her eyes. _I really AM uncute - even Konatsu's more feminine than I am..._ She sniffled.

Akane's arms trembled, and then stilled as she felt a strange sensation. Looking down, she saw Tenjou nestle himself comfortably into her, and go to sleep.

"Ah!"

"What? What?" Konatsu jumped off the see-saw and ran over. "Oh, all the playing must have tired him out." He couldn't help but feel disappointed, they'd only been playing for an hour. But of course, an hour was a lot when you were only four.

"You should probably take him back to the dojo for a nap." Konatsu said.

"Yeah, you're right." Akane sniffed strongly and stood up. Konatsu blinked as he saw a tear roll down her cheek. He tried again to find the words, to try and be useful.

"Ummm... Akane-san, is there anything I can do?" he asked.

Akane looked at him, preparing to politely reject his aid, then stopped. _Why not?_ She thought wildly. _He's more feminine than most of the girls I know, and he's a guy. I couldn't ask anyone else to help with this - Shampoo and Ukyou consider me rivals, I hate Kodachi, and Kasumi and Nabiki would laugh... and Ranma would laugh the hardest! So why not?_

"Ummmm..." she said. _I can't believe I'm doing this. _"Actually, there is something you could do to help me." Her cheeks blushed crimson.

"Really?" Konatsu was amazed. "What?"

"Could you teach me... how to be a real girl?"

THUD!

"Konatsu? Are you alright?"

--

After releasing Tenjou into Kasumi's care and promising to return for lunch, Akane followed Konatsu back to his "place".

"This is where you live?" Akane asked.

"Yeah," said Konatsu. "It's not the greatest, but the health department complained about me living in Ucchans, and there was no other room. But it's cheap, and the public baths are right around the corner!"

Akane looked around the small flat. There were only two rooms. The main room and a tiny bathroom out the back. Akane regarded the small "kitchen sink" in the main room, the rolled up futon, and the remains of several noodle containers by the rubbish bin.

"Ummm..." she said. "You know, if you were in real straits you could have come to us."

Konatsu grinned. "Oh don't worry, it's not that bad," he said. "In fact, compared to my early life - it's luxurious! The best part is that I can cover the rent and utilities out of my pay from Ucchans, so I save everything else."

"Huh?"

"I have a couple of part-time jobs," Konatsu said, tugging the futon away from the wall closet. "Though don't tell Ukyou-sama please. I could afford a bigger place if I really wanted to."

"Then... why don't you?" Akane asked.

"I don't really need one," Konatsu shrugged. "Although I am starting to think of shifting into a slightly bigger place - if only to have somewhere to put all my clothes." He gestured to the large wall closet. Akane approached the double doors and slid the left one open.

"Gak!" was all she could manage. Glittering, shining, and glimmering, the light refracted back at her.

"Do you have a permit for all this stuff?" She demanded. Konatsu looked a bit sheepish as she began to count his weapon collection.

"... four katanas, three Western style blades, more throwing stars in different shapes and sizes than I could possibly ever count... Konatsu - are you planning to declare war on somewhere anytime soon?"

"Eh heh, the way of the ninja - always be prepared." Konatsu said, trying to shut the door.

"Is that gun REAL!"

"Aha!" Konatsu slammed the left door and opened the right. "Here we go!"

Akane gasped as she beheld the collection of clothes in front of her. Stacks of traditional kimonos were folded neatly into the side shelves of the closet, silken dresses hung from the hangers, and the floor was littered with shoes. Akane picked up one stiletto with six inch solid metal heels. "Wha?"

"Oops," said Konatsu, grabbing it. "That should be on the other side. Eh heh... well, I do love clothes."

Akane began to feel faint. A soft perfume tickled her nose as she bent forward to examine the embroidery on one of the dresses. _Roses? And some... jasmine too. Konatsu's special scent_.

"Wow," she said. "You really... really..." tears filled her eyes again. "Oh Konatsu - what a stupid world we live in! You should have been a real girl... and I... I..." Akane sunk to the floor and sobbed.

"I'm uncute," she howled. "I'm ugly, fat, unfeminine, a tomboy... uncute uncute UNCUTE!"

Konatsu sat down beside Akane and nervously put an arm around her. She buried her face in his chest and wept.

"You're not uncute Akane!" Konatsu said. "Whoever said you were was a... a... dimwit!"

"B-but I..."

"I think you're very cute," said Konatsu. "In a totally non-interested flattering admiring way of course."

Akane burst into laughter. "Wha... what the heck was that?" she demanded, between a mixture of sobs and giggles.

"Well," Konatsu blushed. "I didn't want you getting the wrong idea or anything... I mean I like you and everything..."

Akane held up her hands. "I got it, I got it." She sighed and rested her head against Konatsu's chest. "And I appreciate your friendship and companionship - in a totally platonic and caring way."

Konatsu giggled, then sobered. "So, do you want to tell me why you just went into hysterics at the sight of my clothing collection? I know, I know... it's that terrible orange dress isn't it? I swear, I'll get rid of it immediately. I don't know WHAT came over me to buy it but..."

"No no, it's not that." said Akane. "It's, uh, just that... I haven't been feeling very feminine lately. Not like a real girl."

"And you think I have?" Konatsu asked in surprise. "You think you're unfeminine, you should see the sorts of things I have to do..." He rubbed his chin. "I have to make sure there isn't the faintest hint of a shadow so I take care of my face twice a day..."

"Well, you do..."

"And the wax REALLY hurts..." Konatsu continued. "And stockings! I go through stockings like there's no tomorrow! One little run and they're history..."

"Umm... Konatsu..."

"And getting your own scents mixed is so expensive these days, and my new herbal shampoo is making my hair all greasy, not to mention the fact that finding a cleanser that isn't harsh on my skin is like finding the holy grail and..."

"KONATSU!" Akane yelled.

"And... What?" Konatsu stopped.

"Ummm... I don't think you're supposed to use it on your face." Akane mumbled.

"The cleanser?" Konatsu looked surprised and shook his head. "No, because soap is too rough and..."

"Not the cleanser, the... never mind." Akane's mind shuddered back. "Just... never mind. I guess I'm just down in the dumps today - and after the embarrassment at the park I thought some female... er, or closest possible alternative, company might help."

"So this all comes back to the fact that you think you're unfeminine. Silly Akane - you're very feminine! You're just not very confident in it. You're trapped between what society expects you to be like and what you want." Konatsu said wisely. "Believe me, I know whereof I speak." he added wryly.

"You want to be feminine, and female of females... but you don't want to be a cariacature like your sisters - especially Kasumi - now there is a woman who seriously needs a hobby!"

Konatsu leaned back and Akane snuggled in closer to him. For some odd reason, she felt perfectly safe with him. "But Kasumi is perfect!" she protested.

"Yes," said Konatsu. "Perfectly repressed. I spend a lot of time with her and all I know about her is that she cooks some of the best food I've ever tasted, that she can wash a mixed load of clothes without any of them bleeding and that you could eat off floors she's cleaned. She's so dutiful and good my teeth ache around her, I always have to fight down this overwhelming urge to swear like a sailor when she's in the room. Not that it would do much good I imagine. The sun is always shining and people are always happy on Planet Kasumi. I predict ulcers by thirty and a heart attack by forty."

Akane looked up at him in horror. "K-Kasumi?"

"Mmmmm... but forget her for now, we're talking about you." Konatsu said. "And about your happiness."

"I'm not sure this is right." Akane said. "I try to be like Mom and Kasumi and make the people I love happy - but I'm just no good at it."

"Because you MAKE yourself fail," Konatsu said. "Take your cooking... please."

"Hey!"

"No, seriously. You're not really a bad cook at all, are you?"

"I... uh... well... I..."

"You've had successes haven't you, on your own?" Konatsu pressed.

"Ummm... a few..." Akane mumbled.

"But cooking is supposed to be a mothers job - and there isn't ROOM in your household for TWO cooks, so you spoil your meals on purpose - don't you?"

Akane went bright red. "How did you know?"

Konatsu grinned at her. "Because I am wise and all-knowing. Now listen carefully my poor deluded child." Akane was about to interrupt again. Konatsu held up a finger. "Listen Akane, if you really want advice about identity and sexuality crises you've come to the right person so just be quiet and listen."

"You want to be feminine and please yourself, your sisters and society. But you in particular were also interested in moving beyond that - being independent and fearless, a real modern woman, that's you Akane. Added to which you had holes in your family life which all three of you Tendo girls have tried to fill. However, with Kasumi filling the role of mother up so that there's no room for other women, you wound up trying to fit into the role of protector - kind of a father role."

"But I have a dad!" Akane protested. Konatsu glared at her.

"Akane, I've MET your father," he reminded her. "There's plenty of room in that role for you, trust me here. Also, you picked up that your father always wanted an heir, so to please him, you tried to take over that role as well. What with Kasumi holding down the position of devoted wife and mother, and you trying your best to be a son, rather than a daughter, it's no wonder you're a bit muddled up."

"What about Nabiki?"

"Nabiki opted out of this battle a LONG time ago," Konatsu replied. "She saw she couldn't get in on Kasumi's turf, and she didn't want to try and be her fathers son, so she withdrew a little. In a way, she's probably smarter, but not as happy I would imagine. It must be hard for her." Konatsu sighed. "And then Ranma showed up. Talk about your warped values. I'd dearly LOVE to choke his father one day but anyhow... Ranma should have been the real man that you could compare yourself to, and sort yourself out from. Humanity always defines themselves by what they are not, not by what they are. You say, 'I am not like him, therefore I am different from him. I do not have his height, his strength, or his physical appearance. If he is a man, and I am not these things, then I must be a woman.' But Ranma..." Konatsu sighed.

"Ranma Ranma Ranma... Ranma had to go fall in the cursed spring of drowned girl, and promptly screw up all your definitions." Konatsu continued. "The problem is he's not very good at being a good male, and useless at being a good female. He's afraid of losing his 'masculinity' - whatever the heck he thinks THAT is, so he's tried to define himself by what HE thinks girls are - insipid, tittering, cutesy, useless stereotypes - and then he runs into someone like you, who is both a very obviously attractive and cute girl and COMPLETELY unlike his mental picture of girls - in fact, you're almost exactly like him!"

"Now wait a minute..." Akane began. Konatsu held up a finger again.

"He finds himself surprised, shocked, intrigued, and then confused. If you are someone he likes and respects AND a martial artist AND a girl - then who and what is he? And you have pretty much the same problem - a built up image of what ALL guys are, and then you meet one you actually like, don't deny it, and he's a bit like you, and you don't know what this means to you. So, as a result, you both overcompensate, trying to emphasise your differences, rather than your similarities. Ranma goes into macho overdrive, trying to be butch and tough and not caring about anything - and you wind up reacting almost the same way!"

"Ummm..." said Akane. "Confused... help!"

Konatsu sighed. "The point is you can't win by trying to compete and out-tough each other. The whole point of yin and yang is for the two sides to complement each other, not fight all the time!"

"But he..."

"Provokes you... I know... but he's only doing it to try and prove to himself that he's more male than you are. He's not a modern man Akane, and he's nervous about his role. That isn't an excuse, merely a situation. The question is, are you going to keep battling him for dominance in your relationship? You both have this, 'I must be in charge' attitude, which is good - healthy even, but if you keep fighting each other ALL the time, you're going to lose by default."

"So, what should I do then?" Akane asked meekly. She was amazed, and a little disturbed, by what Konatsu had said so far... and yet it all seemed so right.

"That's the beauty of it, you don't have to DO anything." Konatsu exclaimed. "Your problem Akane, is that you don't think you're feminine - obviously the rest of the world does, else why would half the school be in love with you? And note that I said love, not lust. They want you for the whole you - your face, your personality, your body, your kindness..."

"But..."

"No buts!" Konatsu would not be stopped. "I will not be denied! Foreign Princes have kidnapped you and asked you to be their wives - strange and handsome men have declared their love to you - powerful martial artists have fought over you... Do you really think that this is all some massive coincidence? NO! Face it Akane, you're wonderful, so stop trying to be superwoman and be confident in yourself! Don't listen to what anyone else says about you! Remember the most important thing - that you have lots and lots of friends and admirers, and they like you just for you... Not your clothes or martial arts prowess. If you really want to be happy - just be yourself!" Konatsu stopped, chest heaving as he sucked in breath.

Akane stared at him. Then she gently disentangled herself from him.

"Ah... Akane?" Konatsu was suddenly struck, ironically enough, by self-doubt. Maybe he'd been too much.

Akane moved away from Konatsu, shuffled into kneeling position, then bent forward at the waist and formally bowed to Konatsu.

"Konatsu-sama," she said. "I am eternally grateful to you for sharing your wisdom with me. I will take it to heart and try to live well because of it. Is there anything I can do to thank you for such a gift?"

Konatsu was flabberghasted. "I... ah... ahh... Er, no thanks. I'm just peachy right now."

Akane straightened up and grinned at him. "In that case why don't we grab that revolting orange dress and drop it off at a second hand place on the way to the mall for some disgustingly sweet and fattening ice cream sundaes - my treat!"

Konatsu found himself answering Akane's grin with one of his own. "Sister," he said. "You've got a deal!"

--

End of Part Four

Author's Note: It is virtually impossible to own a real gun in Japan. The gun-owning section of the population is something like 2 out of the entire country. However, there are a lot of replica guns. Whether or not Konatsu has a real one is up in the air. :-)

* * *


	5. Part Five

**Ranma 1/2: Catalyst**  
**Part Five: Leavetakings**  
**by Jaelle.**

* * *

The characters in this story were not created by me and do not belong to me in any way, shape or form. They are the creations of the one and only Rumiko Takahashi. All hail!

Thoughts in _italics_.

* * *

Mousse moodily rubbed at the tables in the Nekohanten, cleaning up before the lunch rush. After Cologne's rather stinging remarks Shampoo had taken herself off to the public baths to, "Make beautiful for airen!" She'd stopped back in briefly to pick up some food "for airen!", knocked him down going out and and hadn't come home yet. He'd considered going along too, but was stopped short with demands by Cologne that he "do something to justify his freeloading butt, unless you want to BE dinner instead of serving it."

He stared unseeingly at the table as he scrubbed. This was not a new phenomenon, Mousse frequently didn't see things. But this time, it brought him up short.

_Am I really that bad? _he wondered. _I mean, is my sight really such a handicap? Alright, so I sometimes spend my time talking to statues, and attacking the wrong people, but is it really that bad? At least I don't lead girls on like Ranma does, or am terminally stupid like Kuno, and although my vision may not be perfect I can still find my way around places faster than Ryoga. And it doesn't really affect my normal life... does it?_ Mousse stopped his scrubbing and squinted at the table.

_I've been scrubbing this table for the past ten minutes, it should be clean by now. But I can't tell._

A small shiver ran down his back.

_It really is_ _that bad._

And then another thought, worse than the previous one.

_I'm just as bad as all the others._

Mousse stared at the table for a long time.

--

Akane walked back to the Tendo house feeling supremely happy. After her talk with Konatsu, she'd been amazed at how easy everything seemed. They'd yacked over ice cream about all sorts of rubbish, clothes, make-up, studies, plans for the future.

_It's incredible!_ She thought. _I can't believe I never thought of talking to someone like Konatsu before! Who knew that he was so bright!_ Jauntily she walked in the front door, kicked her shoes off and put them aside before putting her slippers on. "I'm home!" she called.

"Welcome home!" came an unfamiliar reply.

"Huh?" Akane stuck her head around the living room doorway and was surprised to find Tatewaki Kuno seated at the table.

"Upperclassman Kuno! Wha... what are you doing here?"

"Greetings Akane Tendo." Kuno inclined his head towards her. "Your esteemed older sister invited me to visit your gentle home."

"Kasumi invited you over?" Akane was baffled.

"Nope, I did." Nabiki walked in, wearing a t-shirt and jeans. "Kuno-baby did me a favour this morning, so I figured the least I could do was invite him over for lunch. We didn't have anything else to do anyway, so I thought I'd volunteer our services for Tenjou-sitting while you're at college."

"Oh... okay." said Akane. "Didn't you have a class this morning that you should be finishing right about now?"

"I vaguely recall something about that," Nabiki replied, with quirk of her mouth.

"Aha, gotcha." Akane grinned back at her sister, slightly surprised by Nabiki's good humour.

Just then Tenjou wandered in, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"Ah this must be young master Hibiki, greetings child."

Tenjou stared at Kuno, who knelt and patted his head.

"How sad it is to lose one's mother so young, I know the heartache well. Rest assured young one that should you ever require aid, the strong arm of the Blue Thunder of Furinkan College is ever at your calling." Kuno stood up and nobly strode off. Tenjou stared after him, a confused expression on his normally solemn face.

"Where's he going?" Akane asked. "I thought he was going to help?"

"I think he wanted to make a dramatic exit." said Nabiki. "Too bad he walked into the broom closet."

"Uh huh," said Akane. "Well, shall we set the table?"

--

Konatsu lay back on his futon and stared at the ceiling. That Akane, what a silly! How could she miss what was, quite literally, staring her in the face everytime she looked in the mirror? He smiled in remembrance of her offer as she left the cafe.

"Konatsu," he remembered her saying. "I want to thank you so much for everything you've done for me this morning, and if there's anything, ANYTHING, you want or need from me, just call. I swear I'll come running. I'll even bring chocolate - how's that for a deal?"

Konatsu's smile widened as he remembered the rest of the conversation. "Sounds great," he'd replied. "So no more nonsense about this 'being a real girl' thing then?"

"None." Akane had said firmly. "From now on I'm going to believe in myself, and trust myself."

"And like yourself," he'd added. "That's important too."

Akane had nodded, and then placed her hand over his. "And you believe in yourself, trust and like yourself too." she'd said. "Because I like you very much, and think you're deserving of happiness - whatever that may be for you...

Konatsu... chan."

And then she'd left.

_Happiness?_ Konatsu wondered. _But I am happy! I have a job, a home... someone I love very much. I'm happy, right?_ He got up and looked at himself in the mirror. A very cute girl stared back at him.

_I'm happy_. he thought. _I know I am. I'm happy_.

_But who is 'I'? _

_I am... am..._

"Can you show me how to be a real girl?" Akane asked him in the park.

_I am..._

"Konatsu... chan." Akane's face, so serious.

_I am... _

"You'll make a fantastic mother someday!" the woman had complimented her.

_I am..._

Konatsu frowned. He didn't usually think like this. He was usually so sure.

_I am..._

Tenjou had smiled up at him trustingly.

"Konatsu... chan."

"I am..." Konatsu stopped. He stared at his face - or her face, he often had difficulty working out whose it was. His, or hers.

"Who are you anyway?" he asked.

_Who are you that asks?_ his own voice echoed in his mind.

He tried again. "I am..."

"A real girl?"

"A fantastic mother someday!"

"Konatsu... chan."

Konatsu stared into the mirror as the words ran around and around in his head.

--

Ranma moved into a stretching routine and kept an eye on Kuno, Nabiki and Tenjou, still sitting at the table. He'd been surprised and a little put out to find that Kuno was joining them for lunch, but was in a good enough mood to agree to a temporary truce over the meal. It had been delicious too, so he was glad nothing had messed it up.

Then Akane had headed off for her afternoon classes and Nabiki and Kuno announced that they were looking after Tenjou until Ryoga woke up. The poor guy was still fast asleep. Ranma wondered how much rest he'd had lately. Paranoia seemed to be wearing him out.

Meanwhile, Ranma himself was doing some stretches preliminary to a work out, since he had nothing else to do.

"Hup... hup... hup..." he bounced gently in a stretch, kicked out his feet to loosen up his legs a bit and assumed the first position of the first kata.

Nabiki shook her head as she watched Ranma practice. "Practice, practice, practice... I don't know how he does it. You'd think it would get boring after a while."

"Brrrrrrmmm... brrrrmmm..." replied Kuno. Nabiki looked over in amazement as Kuno pretended the matchbox he held was a car. "Ready Speed Racer?"

Tenjou had a small wooden ornament box in his hand. He nodded.

"And we're off!" Kuno took off on his hands and knees, scuttling around the room, pushing the matchbox along, making car noises and occasionally singing snatches of the Speed Racer theme. Tenjou followed him in close pursuit as they 'drove' around the room, over the table, over Nabiki, who was too stunned to react, into the kitchen, out of the kitchen, once around the koi pond and back into the living room.

Ranma stared at this odd show as he moved into the fifth kata. He'd never thought he'd see the day... What was it about this kid that turned grown human beings into complete mush brains? Then his eyes threatened to cross as Nabiki snatched up her pencilcase and joined in, yelling that she would show them all what it meant to be a real racer!

Stunned, Ranma missed his footing and plunged into the pond.

"What's wrong with HIM?" Kuno asked.

Nabiki shrugged. "Maybe he wasn't paying attention." Something nagged at her mind.

Kuno sniffed. "When I train, I focus my mind only on the task at hand. You will never see Tatewaki Kuno distracted by... THE PIGTAILED GIRL!"

_Oh yeah_, thought Nabiki. _That was it._

"Yeep!" eeped Ranma. "Get away from me!"

"My darling! How I have longed for this day!"

"Heeeeelp!"

Nabiki looked at Tenjou, who was watching the scene with a puzzled expression.

"What's all the noise?" Ryoga asked, yawning as he walked into the living room. "Ah, should have guessed. Kuno's visiting, is he?" He put a hand over his eyes. "When will that idiot catch a clue?"

"Today... I hope." said Nabiki in a voice the temperature of glaciers. "Can you look after your son for a while?"

Ryoga grinned at her unexpectedly. "I'd love to get a turn," he wisecracked. "C'mon Tenjou."

"Don't let him wander off Tenjou!" Nabiki called as the boy guided his father out to the front garden. She stuck her head into the kitchen. "Kasumi, can I borrow a bucket of cold water and a kettle of hot water please?"

"Of course Nabiki," said Kasumi, who was staring in concern at a package on the bench. She absently began to collect the required items. "Actually, I was wondering if you could run this over to the college. Akane left her dinner behind, and if she stays late studying again she'll starve to death."

"Sorry," said Nabiki. "But I have other plans. I can look after the house though if you want to take it there."

Kasumi brightened. "We do need more soy sauce, I could pick it up on the way back."

"Good plan," said Nabiki. "See you later!" She picked up the now full kettle and bucket and went out to the pond.

"Okay you two, we're going to sort this out once and for all even if it KILLS the both of you!"

--

Ukyou yawned, bored. The lunch rush was over, and there weren't likely to be many more customers till late this evening. And with Konatsu taking the day off, there was noone to talk to. _I'm SO bored. _

"Hello!"

"Kon... atsu?" Ukyou said in surprise. "What are you doing here? You took the day off, remember?"

"Yeah," said Konatsu. "I needed to talk to you about something? Uh... there isn't really any easy way to say this so I just... better spit it out." He proffered an envelope to her.

"Oh no..." Ukyou groaned. "I can't deal with this right now." She eyed the love letter. _Not AGAIN!_

"I... I... quit."

"I... what!"

"I'm handing in my resignation." Konatsu said, offering her the envelope. Ukyou accepted it numbly. _I don't believe this._

"But... why?" she asked. "If you wanted a pay rise you could have just asked."

"I'm going to go away and find myself." Konatsu said with a grin.

"Find yourself!"

"I'm going to find out who Konatsu is," said Konatsu. "Find out who she... or he... is." He grinned at her, tears glistening unshed in his eyes. "The last few years have been the best in my life. I cannot express my gratitude enough, and I'm sorry to have to repay you by leaving you in the lurch as it were, but a... ninja has to do, what a ninja has to do."

He took her hand in his. "Goodbye for now Ukyou-sama. I hope one day to return. Perhaps at last to be your husband, or not. Whatever happens, please remember that I am now and always your friend. Please take care of yourself my dear, dear Ucchan." He leant forward and kissed her cheek.

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye," Ukyou choked out. She watched him walk away, feeling numb inside. Konatsu... leaving...

The ninja walked down the street, turned the corner, and was lost to sight.

--

As the rest of her history class filed out of the room, Akane scooped the rest of her textbooks into her school bag and checked to make sure she'd packed her pencil case, preparatory to heading off to her next class.

"Akane-chan!"

"Kasumi-chan!" Akane looked up in surprise to see her oldest sister waving at her from the back of the class. "What's up?"

"You forgot your dinner," Kasumi explained as she handed her sister a package.

"Argh! I did too! Thanks Kasumi, I'm sorry to have put you out by making you come all this way."

"Oh it was no trouble," Kasumi smiled and looked around. "So, this is your classroom is it?"

"Just for my biology classes," Akane said, carefully packing her lunch away. "Now I have to go attend a literature lecture."

"How nice! Well, I'm heading back now. Don't stay too late studying!"

Akane nodded and then glanced at her sister. Konatsu's words echoed through her mind: _"The sun is always shining and people are always happy on Planet Kasumi. I predict ulcers by thirty and a heart attack by forty."_

"Kasumi," she said hesitantly.

"Yes?" Her sister smiled at her.

"Why didn't you ever go to college?"

Kasumi blinked. "Oh my. Well, I thought about it. But really, we need someone home to take care of things, and father really appreciates my help, so it didn't seem important enough for me to come."

Akane was shocked. "But... did you WANT to go to college?"

Kasumi looked confused. "Want? I... was needed at home."

"But what about what YOU wanted." Akane persisted.

Kasumi was silent.

"Kasumi, if you could have ANYTHING in the world, what would it be?"

Kasumi brightened. "Oh, that's easy..."

"It has to be just for you," Akane added quickly.

"Oh," Kasumi's face fell. "That's not so easy. Ummm... a new kimono would be nice."

"Anything," Akane prompted. "Anything at all."

"Anything?"

"Anything."

Kasumi pondered. "... I don't know. I guess I must have everything I want."

"Well, you must get really tired doing all that work!" Akane tried a new tack. "Wouldn't you like to do something else for a change?"

"Oh no, I like the work," Kasumi demurred.

"Doesn't it get boring?"

"No, not at all. In fact I find it very fulfilling." Kasumi smiled her limpid smile again.

Argh. Wrong angle. Akane tried again. "You shouldn't have to do all of it though. I'm sure some of the rest of us could pitch in with it. Then you'd have some free time for yourself!"

"Time for myself?"

"Yes, to, you know... do stuff in."

"Stuff?"

"Well," Akane thought desperately. "You know, take up a hobby."

"Hobby?"

"Or take a break, relax for a minute..."

Kasumi stared at her incomprehendingly. Akane sweatdropped. What can I do? She thought frantically. I want to do something but I don't know what. Aaaahhhh! "You know... just hang out, have some fun, maybe have a cup of te... Ah! Kasumi... um..."

"Yes Akane?"

"Would you... would you... would you like to go out with me?"

Kasumi blinked at her. "Pardon?"

"For tea," Akane clarified. Then she realised how that must sound. "You know, a sister thing?"

Kasumi smiled. "That would be nice. We can have tea together when you get home."

Akane sweatdropped again. "No, not when I get home. Right now. In a tea shop. It's my treat."

Kasumi frowned. "Didn't you have a literature class right now?"

"Yeah but I can skip..." Akane bit off her sentence. "Oh of course, how could I forget that? Can you wait for me?"

"Wait?" Kasumi was surprised.

"Here, on the campus. Oh no, wait, that won't do." Akane thought quickly. "I know, why don't you sit in on the class with me! Then we can get tea afterwards!"

"Sit in..." Kasumi was shocked. "I couldn't do that! I'm not a student here!"

"It's okay," Akane said. "They won't know. If they ask, I'll just say you're sitting in from the other lit class."

"But... the housework..."

"It can wait," Akane tried to be persuasive. "I promise I'll help this evening! I can at least do the dishes, right?"

"I don't know..." Kasumi was already forming the words to turn her sister down.

"Please Kasumi. It would mean so much to me. We hardly ever spend quality time anymore. Pleeeeassseeeee..." Akane turned on all her charm. Kasumi wilted.

"Well, if you're sure it will be alright."

"GREAT! It'll be fine!" Akane promised. "And I meant it when I said I'd help out at home."

"It's alright," Kasumi smiled. "I'll manage. Hadn't we better hurry?"

"Sure, it's this way!"

--

"Alright, let's try this again."

SPLASH!

"Pig-tailed girl!"

THUMP!

"Why did you hit me with a broom Nabiki Tendo?"

"Did you look at the chart?"

"Yes."

"Did you read the signs?"

"Yes."

"And you still glomped the pig-tailed girl."

"Yes."

"That's why."

Ryoga shook his head as he played with his son. "I wonder if she's offering odds on this?"

Nabiki glared at him. "Nope, because since I'm doing this it's a sure bet. But if you want to lose your money... Now Kuno, pay attention."

Splash!

"Ranma Saotome! What have you done with my pigtailed girl!"

Sigh.

--

"So, what did you think of the class?" Akane probed gently as she sipped her tea.

Kasumi regarded her cup of tea closely. "It was... very interesting." She said slowly. "I hadn't realised how much more work is involved at college level."

Akane laughed. "That's for sure! But the courses are so much more interesting as well!"

"That's... true..." Kasumi looked away.

"You haven't had any of your tea," Akane said anxiously. "Don't you like it?"

"No, no, it's fine." Kasumi blew on her tea and then sipped some. "It's just fine." The expression on her face was abstracted.

Akane toyed with her tea. "You know, there's an ancient literature class in fifteen minutes," she commented idly. "It's an open class, all welcome. I hadn't really been planning on going, but I was just thinking it might be fun to go together."

"Oh, I couldn't. I have to cook dinner!" Kasumi said in real dismay.

"Oh, that's too bad," Akane said idly. "How long will it take?"

"At least an hour," Kasumi said.

"Oh well.. the class only goes till 5.30. That should leave you plenty of time!" Akane said.

"But... I was going to dust as well."

"I'm sure it wouldn't hurt..." Akane said persuasively. "Just this once."

"Well..." Kasumi faltered and Akane stared at her, trying to hypnotise her.

"Maybe... just this once..."

--

"So you get it now?" Nabiki asked.

"Ye-es..." Kuno said hesitantly. "Ranma Saotome... and the pigtailed girl are..."

Nabiki, Ranma and Ryoga waited with bated breath. Tenjou watched the entire proceedings with a slightly puzzled expression.

"... actually one and the same person." Kuno finished. "Is that right?"

"YES!" Nabiki threw up her hands in triumph. "You did it! You're absolutely correct!"

"I am?" Kuno looked surprised. "I got the answer right?"

"For possibly the first time in your entire life, yes," Nabiki said. "Congratulations."

Kuno beamed. Ranma and Ryoga sighed in relief. Tenjou blinked and turned back to the picture he was drawing. It was of a small black pig.

"So does this mean you won't be chasing me anymore?" Ranma asked hopefully.

"Only one way to find out!" Nabiki dumped a bucket of cold water on Ranma. Female Ranma blinked. Kuno stared at her.

The silence extended.

"Hello," Kuno finally said. "R... Ranma?"

Nabiki, Ranma and Ryoga relaxed.

"Finally!" Ranma said. "Now we just have to explain it to Kodachi!"

"Oh, she probably already knows," Kuno said casually.

"WHAT?"

"Well, she's a genius you know," Kuno looked from one to the other. "IQ through the roof. It's just that... well... father..."

"Say no more," said Ryoga. "Isn't there anything that can be done? I mean, what's her exact problem?"

"She's uh... a little emotionally unstable." Kuno admitted.

"For which read: complete freaking nutcase." Ranma added.

"Not helpful, Ranma," Ryoga snapped.

"It's not really her fault," Kuno protested. "It's been hard for her. First our mother's death, then our father and his weird experiments, hang-ups and training. He... after she... well..." He looked uncomfortable. "I'd really prefer not to say some of the things she was put through. And it was particularly hard since she had to manage pretty much alone. I... was never really able to keep up with her mentally." He blushed. "Sasuke does his best to prevent her getting into too much trouble, and we've tried to get her therapy... but all they ever did was give her drugs and after she figured out all the chemical combinations... Well, we've tried giving her the right pills but she WILL self-medicate and..." He rambled to an end. "To be honest, I've no idea what she's ingesting these days."

"Oh dear..." Nabiki chewed on a fingernail. "I'd no idea things were that bad."

"We try to keep it quiet," Kuno admitted. "What would people say?"

"YOU IDIOT!" Ranma exploded. "Call yourself an older brother? Who CARES what people say - your sister needs help and she needs it NOW! Did it occur to you that maybe you should ask for help?"

Ryoga nodded in angry agreement.

Kuno shrugged. "We... we really didn't know where to go for help."

Ranma groaned and fell over backwards. "Moron."

"Name-calling won't help," Nabiki said, standing up suddenly. "Okay, so he's left it a bit late but better late than never. Now we know, we can help."

"Help?" Kuno repeated.

"Help? We? Why do we have to help?" Ranma objected.

Nabiki shot him a withering look. "Because he's come to us for help, idiot. Weren't you just saying that he should ask for it? And now you're complaining because YOU don't want to go to the effort. That's REALLY going to help the situation Ranma. Now that we know, we have to help, or the situation will never be resolved. Hmmm... So who can we go to for expert advice..."

"Expert advice on what?" Kasumi walked into the room. "I'm home!"

"Welcome home," Nabiki replied. "Expert psychological and medical advice."

"Well, you could try the college library," Kasumi said, practically glowing. "It's got HUNDREDS of books!"

Ranma stared at her whilst Kuno and Nabiki mulled it over.

"We need a more immediate and practical answer I think," Nabiki said. "A shrink maybe?"

"We tried that!" Kuno objected. "They'll just give her more pills!"

"How about Dr Tofu?" Akane suggested, walking in behind Kasumi. "He knows a lot, and he's interested in lots of alternate forms of medicine."

"Dr Tofu! That's a great idea!" Nabiki enthused. "Perfect! He's smart, sensible... and not too fond of drugging his patients. He should still be open, let's go Kuno-baby!"

"Do you really think he can help?" Kuno stood up.

"If he can't, I'm sure he can recommend someone who can." Nabiki replied. "Best of all, he's trustworthy. Sorry Kasumi, can you save me some dinner?"

"Of course!" Kasumi bubbled.

Nabiki paused and looked at her. "You okay?"

"Fine, fine!" Kasumi smiled. "You run along now."

Nabiki nodded, grabbed Kuno and dragged him out the door.

"And now I simply MUST get dinner going!" Kasumi rushed into the kitchen.

"Need any help?" Ryoga followed her.

Ranma looked at Akane. "I thought Kasumi went to take you your dinner?"

Akane shrugged. "I decided to come home for it after all. I don't really feel like another late night in the library."

"Fair enough, at least you missed Kuno. I don't think Nabiki's 'tutoring' would have worked if you'd been around as well." Ranma said. "Ah well, at least I got one good thing out of this."

"What's that?" Akane asked.

"Kuno finally understands that I'm female-Ranma."

Akane paused. "He understands, or he knows?"

Ranma blinked at her. "What are you talking about?"

"The difference between knowing a fact and understanding a concept."

"What?"

Akane sighed. "Does he know that you're female-Ranma, as a factual statement. Or does he understand what that actually means on a more personal level?"

Ranma was still confused. "Ummm... well he knows. I don't know if he understands..."

From the direction of the street came a long, high-pitched, anguished scream, torn from the very bowels of hell. They all listened as it went on and on and on.

"Okay," said Akane. "Well, I think he understands now."

* * *

End of Part Five

* * *


	6. Part Six

**Ranma 1/2: Catalyst**  
**Part Six: Friends**  
**by Jaelle.**

* * *

The characters in this story were not created by me and do not belong to me in any way, shape or form. They are the creations of the one and only Rumiko Takahashi. All hail!

I have attempted in this part to make a very bad joke using the same puns that gave us the names of Mu Shu (Mousse), Xian Pu (Shampoo) and Cu Lon (Cologne). However, I don't know any Chinese at all, so I've just made a bunch of sounds that I think will work. I apologise profusely if I've screwed it up beyond all belief, but I just couldn't resist.

Thoughts in _italics_.

* * *

Ukyou sat behind the cold griddle of Ucchans and stared at the letter in her hand. Left. She... he'd left! She could hardly believe it. Konatsu had left, to find himself of all the lame reasons. What sort of half-assed dumb moronic thinking was that? Again she was on the verge of screwing up his resignation letter and using it to relight the griddle with, but again she stopped herself. It was dark outside now and very cold. Her last customer had left over an hour ago, so for an hour now she'd been sitting in the empty room, alone. Talk about pathetic, she snarled at herself. It wasn't as if you were even interested in the guy, he was just a friend!

Just a friend who'd left. Like Ryoga had left. Like Ranma had left her, all those years ago.

Ukyou rested her head in her arms and tried to get up the motivation to stand up and start cleaning and closing up. None came. Instead she started remembering some of the fun she and Konatsu had had... the time Konatsu had tried to put highlights in his hair and turned it green. Last Christmas, when they'd nearly killed themselves setting up a life-size brightly lit model of Santa Claus and all his damn reindeer on top of the restaurant. Standing on his shoulders to put up ribbons celebrating five years of Ucchans being open... Getting into that huge snowball fight with Akane and Ranma.

Good times with good friends.

A large tear rolled down the side of her nose and dripped onto her arms. _For goodness sake girl, what the heck it with all this self-pity and depression? You have plenty of other friends... There's... uhm... Akane! And... Heck, you have a fiance! You don't NEED friends!_

Ukyou sat up sharply. "That's right," she said aloud. "I have Ranma-honey. I don't need ANYBODY else!"

There was a loud CRASH from out the back of the restaurant. It sounded as if yet another drunk businessman had wandered out there and fallen into the garbage cans. Ukyou sighed and grabbed her giant spatula. _I swear, if it's that guy from Toei again, he's toast!_ She went out the back door and flipped on the outside lights. "Okay buddy, we're closed and this is NOT a hotel so why don't we just move you on down to the police station and they can take you ho... Mousse?"

Mousse stared upwards at the angry face. "Hello there, you have comfortable floors."

"Mousse what are you... are you drunk!" Ukyou was incredulous. She put her spatula down. "What happened? Lose to Ranma again?"

"I'm sho... so sorry... but do I know you?" asked Mousse. "I'm afraid I'm blind you see... and I think that the third bottle of sake is interfering with my hearing."

"You... sake? Mousse? What the hell happened to you?"

"Enlightenment," Mousse croaked out. Then he rolled over, threw up into one of the tipped over rubbish bins and then passed out.

"Oh good grief," said Ukyou.

--

"So what do you think?" Nabiki asked Dr Tofu. "Is she a hopeless case?"

Dr Tofu frowned at her briefly. "Nabiki, noone is ever a hopeless case." He pretended not to hear her muttered comment. "However, I will admit that Kodachi-san is not well at all."

"Can you help her?" Kuno asked anxiously.

Dr Tofu paused to think and assess the situation. He'd been very surprised when Nabiki and Kuno had come to visit him this late at night, but when he'd heard their story, he'd decided it was best to see the patient at once. Although he was not a qualified psychiatrist, he was appalled by just a brief conversation with Kodachi Kuno. She was clearly unstable, and he was ready to tentatively diagnose her as seriously depressed and on the verge of a complete personality split. He also strongly suspected that she was addicted to at least one of the drugs she was taking to "calm herself".

"I think she can be helped," he said slowly. "But it will take time. The first thing I'd like to do is find out exactly what she's taking and the various dosages."

"Sasuke might know," Kuno said thoughtfully. "He's always kept an eye on us."

"Then I'll need to talk to him," Dr Tofu said. "Also, I think we need to consider bringing in a trained psychiatrist..."

"I told you, they only give her more drugs!" Kuno said. "Can't you treat her?"

"I'm not really qualified..."

"Yes you are!" Kuno interrupted. "You're perfectly qualified! You're the first doctor in ten years she hasn't beaten up, tricked in some way or outright poisoned!"

Not that she hadn't tried. Fortunately Dr Tofu had always had a lot of hidden depths when it came to martial arts, wasn't easily fooled, KNEW his poisons and, most fortunately, his antidotes as well.

"Alright, alright, calm down," he said gently. "If you're adamant about this, I'll do my best to treat her. But I'm going to need YOUR help."

Kuno looked panicked. "Me?"

"Don't worry Kuno-baby," Nabiki put in. "I'll help."

Kuno thought about her help so far, and the pain and humiliation it had caused him. "Uh, thanks, I think."

"Hey, ignorance may be bliss but it's not going to help your sister," Nabiki said with a glare. "Do you want to help her or not?"

"She's my little sister." Kuno said slowly. "I... I want her to be well again."

"Excellent!" Dr Tofu said. "Why don't we go sit down and talk about what happens next."

"Just let me ring Kasumi and tell her I'll be home late," Nabiki said.

--

"I understand," Kasumi said into the phone. "Well, take care coming home. Alright. Good luck!" She hang up the phone, gave the table beside her a final wipe and looked around to see what needed to be cleaned next. The main room appeared to be clean so she headed into the kitchen.

"Akane?"

"Hey Kasumi, I'm just about done!" Akane dried the last dish and put it away in the cupboard beside her. "Whew!"

"Thank you Akane," Kasumi tried to hide her surprise. "But you didn't need to do that," she said, smiling somewhat nervously.

"Oh no! I'm the one who kept you from getting to the housework, so it's only fair that I help you get caught up," Akane said firmly. Then she grinned. "Besides, I'm not really doing my fair share of the chores anyway. I'm sorry about that Kasumi, I'll try to kick in more around here."

"But you do lots of things Akane," Kasumi protested. "You keep the dojo clear, you chop ALL the wood, and you're always happy to help when I ask."

"Yeah, but you shouldn't have to ask." Akane looked down. Then there was a blur and Kasumi was stunned to find Akane hugging her fiercely around the middle.

"Akane?" She found herself repeating.

"I love you sis," Akane mumbled, and then released Kasumi and sprinted off over to the dojo. Kasumi stared after her younger sister in surprise. Then she looked around the spotless kitchen. It appeared that there was no more cleaning to be done here. Maybe she would get a head start on tomorrows work then. That would be nice.

Wouldn't it?

--

"Urgh..." Mousse opened his eyes and blinked. Everything was a white blur, and he was soaked. He shuddered and shut them again, wishing for once that he was completely blind, so that the bright light would stop sneaking round corners and into his eyes. He swallowed hard to fight back nausea.

"Ooooooooooohhhhhhhh... my god... So this is what being drunk is like. How do people DO this to themselves?" He curled into a fetal roll. "I want to die..."

"Are you awake?"

"No..." Mousse pulled his robe over his head. "Please, let me die in peace."

Ukyou rolled her eyes at the pathetic sight he presented. "You can't stay here all night. Get UP you imbecile!" She put down the pot of hot water.

Being faced with an unconscious Mousse, her first reaction had been to do what she normally did with drunks, throw cold water over them to wake them up and hand them over to the local police to deal with. However she'd forgotten about his curse, and so had wound up carrying the unconcious duck into the restaurant and boiling some hot water to return him to his human form. (Although she had had to struggle a bit with the part of her that suggested that roast duck with an alcoholic marinade would be a wonderful addition to the menu.)

"Nooooooo..." Mousse moaned.

Ukyou sighed and slumped into a sitting position next to him. "Listen to me you great hulking twit, you are lying in the middle of the floor at my restaurant. You're still a little drunk and your clothes are soaked. If I leave you here you'll die of hypothermia."

No reaction.

"Argh!" Ukyou threw up her hands. "I've had enough! I'm calling Shampoo and Cologne to come pick you up!"

"NO!" Mousse shot upright and grabbed her arm. "Please don't!" He squinted at her and tried to cudgel his sozzled brain into thought. _Restaurant... knows who I am... UKYOU!_

"Please Ukyou," he pleaded. "Don't call the Nekohanten. I'll go on my own. I'll be fine. I'm very sorry about this."

He blinked a bit and his eyes teared up as the lights above caused his head to start throbbing. "I'll just..." he struggled to his feet, and then slumped back down as his knees gave out.

"Oh for heaven's..." Ukyou snorted. "You can't even stand up by yourself! Why me god, why me?" She sighed and put her hands on her hips. "Alright, I'll help you up to my room if you don't want to go home. You can stay here overnight, on the floor! And if you try anything, ANYTHING AT ALL I swear to God I'll..."

"I promise," said Mousse. "Thank you, thank you so much. You're so very kind."

"Yeah yeah yeah," said Ukyou. "I'm a real sweetheart." Why am I doing this? she wondered as she helped him to his feet. _He's not even a friend!_

Eventually they made it up to her room, where she gave him a towel and a spare blanket and told him to sleep on the OTHER side of the room. Then she went back downstairs to close up the restaurant.

Mousse dragged his sodden robe off and towelled himself off. Luckily his trousers hadn't gotten much water on them and were mostly dry. He squeezed as much water as he could off of his robe, then rummaged in it, eventually coming up with a small pillow stuffed with throwing knives, which he removed before placing the pillow on the floor, and a couple of aspirin, which he took. Then he unlaced his shoes, tucked them into a corner, hung his robe on the chair by the window, rolled himself up in the blanket, put his head down on the pillow and closed his eyes. A second later he sat up to take off his glasses and put them next to him. Then he lay down again.

An hour later, Ukyou dragged herself upstairs. She'd forgotten how much work it was closing up by herself. _I'm going to HAVE to employ an assistant_, she thought glumly. She checked on Mousse. He seemed comfortable, lying still, properly facing the wall. But still... She slipped past him to change in the privacy of the tiny bathroom, then quietly unrolled her futon and wrapped some blankets around herself.

_God I hope noone finds out about this_, she thought to herself as she turned out the lights. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark and stared at Mousse's body. There didn't seem to be any movement, and he'd never seemed interested in anybody but Shampoo, so she was probably okay. But... she fingered her spatula, conveniently lying by the bed, there was no point in taking chances.

She closed her eyes.

"Ukyou?" Mousse asked quietly.

"Wha?" her eyes snapped open and she tensed. "What!"

"Thank you," he said, staring blankly at the wall. "I really owe you for this."

"I... that's alright. Shouldn't you be getting some sleep? I want you out of here before anyone sees you," Ukyou said harshly.

"Mmmm," said Mousse. "I just wanted to apologise for being a bother."

"Oh," Ukyou relaxed. "That's okay, you're no more trouble than the rest of this crowd." She rethought that. "At least you weren't until tonight."

Mousse winced. "Don't worry, this won't happen again - ever!"

Ukyou closed her eyes. "Fine, now stop worrying about it and go to sleep."

"Night Ukyou."

Ukyou listened to him breathe a bit and then sighed and opened her eyes.

"Mousse?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you get drunk? I don't think I've ever heard of you drinking before."

Mousse replied glumly. "For the first time, instead of staring forward into a happy, clear future, I looked back at my past. It didn't encourage me."

"Huh?"

He rolled onto his back and stared upwards at the ceiling. The view was no different from his previous one. Blurry.

"I suddenly realised how futile my entire life has been. Chasing endlessly after Shampoo... at least, whoever I thought was Shampoo... trying to defeat Ranma..." He sighed.

"I've had a bad day Ukyou. First I attacked and nearly hurt an innocent child, who I had mistaken for Ranma. Then Akane Tendo filled me in on a few home truths, Shampoo rebuffed me again, the old crone bullied me ALL afternoon, and I suddenly realised that my near-sightedness, a problem that I had always considered merely a mild handicap, wasn't as mild as I had thought it was. I took a good, long, hard look at myself and couldn't see much - of anything! Just a worthless waste of space."

Ukyou waited but he seemed to have stopped for the moment. "And then you went and got drunk," she added.

"And then I went and got drunk," he agreed. "And managed to make myself look like even more of an idiot than I usually do."

"Ummm... I think you're being a bit hard on yourself," said Ukyou, trying to be nice.

"Do you really?" Mousse asked tiredly.

"Err..."

"Thought not," he continued to stare blindly upwards. "I've made a decision though, so at least something's come out of all of this."

"What's that?" Ukyou asked with interest.

"I'm going home."

"Huh? Back to the Nekohanten? NOW!"

"No, not back to the Nekohanten. Back to China. Back to my hometown - the Amazon vill... actually maybe not. Back to China anyway. Maybe I could find a job in Beijing. I have a cousin who lives there. He can put me up," Mousse crossed his arms. "Yes, that seems like the best idea."

Ukyou listened to him and felt her teeth clench. So now Mousse was leaving too. Damn them all, didn't they have any consideration for her feelings? Konatsu, Ryoga, Ranma, Mousse... Damn them anyway!

"So you're just going to run away?" she asked scornfully. "Isn't that a bit cowardly?"

"I'd prefer to think of it as retreating with anything still remaining of my self-respect intact," said Mousse. "But you can call it what you like."

Ukyou's face twisted into a snarl. "It's not going to solve anything you know," she spat out spitefully. "You'll still be as blind as a bat, no matter where you are."

"I've written to my father to ask him for some money," Mousse replied calmly. "I want to get my eyes surgically corrected."

"You... what?" Ukyou was shocked.

"I'm tired of relying on glasses, they don't seem to make them strong enough. And I know it's weak but I CAN'T stick contact lenses in my eyes, I just can't! The whole idea creeps me out," Mousse confessed.

"But then I suddenly thought about corrective surgery. They can do a lot with lasers these days. The only problem is that it costs a lot of money. I know I should have written to my mother instead of my father if I needed cash, but I disgust her so much with my failures that she hasn't spoken to me in years," Mousse said. "Dad might have some money saved up. It's unlikely, but worth a shot. If he doesn't, I'll try my cousin. We were always close when we were children."

Silence. "You've... er... never mentioned your family before," said Ukyou.

"Well, neither have you," said Mousse. "But, if you're interested, my father's name is Loofa, and my mother's is Soapy. I have three sisters, all younger than myself, and another brother, older than me, who just married last year."

He sighed, "I really miss him. My older brother Gel, and my cousin Hair Spray, we all used to hang around together."

Ukyou bit her lip and tried to control her giggles. "Mousse, Gel and Hair Spray. I can see you must have had some good times together."

"How nice it will be to live again in a country where my name is not an object of ridicule," Mousse said in a cold voice.

Ukyou giggled. "I'm sorry, really! It's just!" She hiccuped. "Sorry, I'm wound pretty tightly today too - first this whole thing with Ryoga's kid and all, and then Konatsu quits..."

"Konatsu quit?" Mousse said in surprise. "I thought he was dedicated to you."

"Yeah," said Ukyou. "So did I, but," she shrugged. "He decided he needed to go off and find himself."

"I can understand that," said Mousse.

"Well you shouldn't!" Ukyou sat up. "The whole idea is stupid! Why does he have to go away to find himself? Why can't he do it here? How dare he leave me like this? And now you're going too. It makes me sick!"

"Ukyou..." Mousse sat up. "It's important to me to do this," he said. "And I'm sure it's important to Konatsu too - he wouldn't have left you for anything less than vital! Until we know who we really are we're just vagabonds, blowing in the wind."

"Stupid stupid stupid!" Tears flowed down Ukyou's face. "It's not logical... you don't travel much so it's not as though you lost yourself in a hotel or at a beach or something. You're still right there! I can see you!"

"I can't," said Mousse quietly.

Ukyou sobbed a bit longer and then took a deep breath. She was sick and tired of people leaving her, and she was damned if she was going to let one more person walk out of her life. "Okay, let's look at some other options. What about your job at the Nekohanten?"

Mousse laughed harshly. "The day I make that old crone part with any cash for my wages I'll eat my robe! Weapons included! 'We feed and house you don't we boy? We give you all the hot water you need and anyway Mr Part-time, I'm letting you be near my sweet Shampoo - so get back to work!' No, she'll never help me."

Ukyou bit her lip. There had to be another option. There had to be! Too many problems crowded her mind and she tried hard to concentrate. Then, enlightenment dawned.

Mousse decided it was time to end this conversation and get some sleep. "Thank you for thinking of me Ukyou, but I'll be fine..."

"I've got it!" Ukyou interrupted. "You can work here!"

"Here!" Mousse repeated incredulously. "At Ucchans? ME!"

"You," said Ukyou smugly. "Konatsu's gone; I need another helper, and you need a job. You can have Konatsu's old job. It's perfect! I won't even have to train you! You did wait tables at the Nekohanten right?"

"Of course!" said Mousse. "But..."

"Then it's settled." Ukyou beamed. "You can start work tomorrow. You can sleep here for a couple of days until we find you a flat you can afford. The pay isn't much, but it'll go up if you work hard and learn how to cook okonomiyaki so you can take turns at the griddle. It's a full time position. There are three shifts - morning, afternoon and evening. You'll work two out of every three, or all three if you think you can handle it. Whichever shift you work, you get that meal free. So if you work morning and afternoon shifts, you get breakfast and lunch free. You're not pretty like Konatsu, so you won't get the salarymen in..."

"Thank you for that at least," said Mousse, annoyed.

"But you're not too hard on the eyes either, so we might get some girls coming in for you."

"Rrrrrgh."

"So, we're all set," said Ukyou happily.

"You seem to be forgetting something," Mousse said quietly.

"And, as part of the deal, I'll advance you the money for your eye surgery," said Ukyou, equally quietly. "We'll make the arrangements tomorrow. You'll pay it back as you work for me. Don't worry, I won't take all your pay. Once we've sorted out your flat we'll work out a budget so that you can be free and clear as soon as possible."

Mousse was silent for a moment. "I... I don't know what to say."

"Say yes," said Ukyou. "Please. I'm sick of watching everyone I know leave me behind."

Mousse closed his eyes. "What about Shampoo?" he asked.

Ukyou leant back and closed her eyes too. "Your private life is none of my business," she said. "All I ask is that you keep her and Cologne out of Ucchans."

Mousse let out a long, lingering sigh. "Deal."

Ukyou smiled and rolled over. "Now get some sleep. Night Mousse."

"Goodnight Ukyou."

--

"Goodnight Ranma!"

"Night Akane," Ranma closed his bedroom door and frowned. "Is it just me or has Akane been acting weird tonight?"

"You don't really expect me to answer that, do you?" Ryoga asked with an arched brow.

"No, I mean... she didn't yell at me once. And she seemed really preoccupied. And then she sprinted off to get to the dishes and then chopped so much wood that we'll be set for the rest of the week!"

"Maybe she just wanted to blow off some steam," Ryoga yawned.

"Huh?"

Ryoga glanced at Ranma. "Whenever Akane's really upset about something, she goes and chops wood. Or practices martial arts. I thought you would have noticed that."

Ranma looked guilty. "I knew about the martial arts, but I missed the wood. I guess I never really paid attention."

Ryoga didn't say anything, but his silence spoke volumes.

Ranma sighed. "Am I ever going to get a turn at telling you off for something?"

"You already did, remember?" Ryoga said. "The whole business with my wife, an accidental shi-shi-hokodan and guilt. Now it's my turn again."

"Payback's a bitch," Ranma grumbled.

Ryoga grinned, then yawned and smiled fondly. "Awww... Tenjou's dropped off already. He's such a little angel when he's asleep."

"He's a little angel most of the time," Ranma opined. "He's the most well-behaved kid I've ever seen. Are you sure he's human?"

Ryoga glared at him. "Not funny Ranma."

"Sorry, sorry." Ranma looked over at his desk and made a face. "Mind if I have the lamp on for a while longer?"

"Sure, why?"

"I, uh, have some homework to do." Ranma confessed. "Quite a lot of it really." _And it's all late_.

"How is the whole college thing working out?" Ryoga asked curiously. "I'm kind of surprised you even bothered to go. Aren't you supposed to inherit the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts?"

Ranma snorted. "Oh yes. And that and 500 yen will get you a cup of tea."

"Ah."

"Yeah," Ranma said bitterly. "Martial arts are fun and all, but a guy's gotta eat. And I won't steal food. Not again, not anymore." He sighed. "I know I need a job, but I don't know what as. I mean, can you see me as some kind of salaryman?"

"Well, what do you want to do?" Ryoga probed.

"That's the problem, I don't know," Ranma sighed. "But I figure that whatever it is, a college education can't hurt my chances."

Ryoga grinned. "Good call. So what's college actually like? How are you doing?"

Ranma shrugged. "Okay I guess. I'm... not the world's greatest student though. I miss too many classes, I don't hand in assignments, I skip tests. It's pretty much the same as in high school."

Ryoga gave him a look.

"Yeah, yeah, nothing's changed since you left, we're all a bunch of idiots. I got it already." Ranma said, holding up his hands to ward off any more lectures.

Ryoga blushed. "I don't mean it like that."

"No, but that doesn't stop it from being true," Ranma said. "It's a shame, but I don't think anything can be done about it."

Ryoga looked thoughtful. "I'm not so sure about that."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"I mean that you can never tell about this kind of thing." Ryoga said. "Besides, if you just give up like that, nothing WILL ever change. Do you REALLY want to be doing this for the next six years?"

"Ummmm..." Ranma stopped and thought about it for a few minutes. Finally he answered. "Not really," he said quietly. "But I don't know where to start."

_I think you already have_, Ryoga thought. "How about with that?" He said instead, pointing at Ranma's towering pile o'homework.

"Urgh," Ranma groaned. "Cruel Ryoga, cruel."

Ryoga smirked at him. "Like you said, payback's a bitch. Night Ranma!" He lay down on his futon and closed his eyes. He could hear Ranma sigh and begin to rustle through the papers on his desk, and he smiled briefly as he heard the first scratchings of pen on paper, before allowing sleep to take him away.

* * *

End of Part Six

* * *


	7. Part Seven

Ranma 1/2: Catalyst 

Part Seven: Change

by Jaelle.

---

The characters in this story were not created by me and do not belong to me in any way, shape or form. They are the creations of the one and only Rumiko Takahashi. All hail!

---

Key:

_Flashbacks and thoughts_

/Chinese/

---

Breakfast at the Tendo's the next morning was fairly uneventful. This was so unusual that all inhabitants of the house marked it on their calendars as a day to remember. There were no fights at all.

It was probably due to everyone being fully occupied with other matters.

Nabiki kept answering the phone and reassuring Kuno that no, he hadn't screwed up completely just because he forgot one step. Kasumi had run out of things to do until breakfast was over and there would be some dishes, and so was quietly eating her breakfast and feeling oddly guilty about it. Ranma was using his very best table manners, which required his full concentration, and Akane was thinking about her family life, and also worrying slightly about a biology test in the afternoon.

And ALL of them were occupied in making sure that Tenjou had everything he needed, and that Ryoga didn't even have a chance to suggest that perhaps he ought to be moving on sometime soon.

"Really, I appreciate everything you've..."

"More pickles Ryoga?"

"Um, thanks. As I was saying, we should be..."

"Do you think Tenjou would like some of this orange juice? It's freshly squeezed."

"Why thank you Kasumi. And about Tenjou..."

"Nabiki, are you coming straight home from college today?"

"No, I'm helping Kuno with the group therapy thing. I'll be late again I'm afraid."

"Okay. Then shall I pick Tenjou up from kindergarten?"

"Kindergarten?"

"I can do that Kasumi. It's at three, right?"

"That's right. Will you be able to get from there to here and back to college before your five o'clock lecture Akane?"

"Oh sure, it's not too far if I run back."

"Kindergarten?"

"Hey Akane, do you still have your notes from first level Chinese history? I can't find mine."

"Excuse me..."

"I think they're on the top shelf in my closet."

"Can I borrow them?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Thanks."

"I just wanted to ask about the kindergarten..."

"Ack!" Akane looked at the clock. "Gonna be late! Stupid English class." She stood up and cleared away her plates. "Thanks for the food Kasumi! I'll see you a little after three!"

Nabiki also cleared her dishes. "Meeting Kuno. Can't talk. Bye!"

Ranma was about to bolt from the table, but paused and quickly cleared his dishes as well. "Going to class, back for lunch! Ryoga – sparring session from twelve-thirty till two, okay? Ciao!"

Ryoga sat at the deserted table and looked at Kasumi. "Kindergarten?" He asked feebly.

Kasumi smiled at him. "Oh yes! We organised for Tenjou to go to a local kindergarten while he's here. After all, he needs to start getting ready to start school next year! Doesn't he look cute in his outfit?"

"I was wondering where he'd gotten the smock from," Ryoga admitted. "But really Kasumi, we should be getting..."

"Heavens! Look at the time! We must dash if we're going to have enough time to visit Dr Tofu on the way there. We don't want to be late do we Tenjou?" Kasumi said, blithely ignoring Ryoga. "Do you have your hat?"

Tenjou produced a standard kindergarten hat from behind him.

"Then let's go! Ryoga, come on now, hurry up!" Kasumi chided him.

"But..."

Kasumi turned to face him. Her face was a picture of innocence.

"Argh," Ryoga put his head in his hands. "I suppose one more day couldn't make that big a difference."

Kasumi smiled. Sweetly.

--

Cologne cleaned the tables grouchily as the morning traffic died down. Shampoo was off running errands and that useless idiot Mousse hadn't been seen since yesterday, so she was having to do the cooking and cleaning all by herself, and it was not putting her in a good mood. She just wasn't as young as she used to be. Oh sure, she could still whip all the youngsters around here in battle with one hand tied behind her back, but these long, work-filled days were starting to make her bones ache.

She sighed and thought wistfully about the visit of Ryoga's son yesterday. Now that had been enjoyable. Really, she should be surrounded by little ones by now, all ready to absorb her vast store of wisdom. She'd been matriach of the Amazon village back in China, and she missed the company of small children, and the satisfaction involved in teaching them. Teenagers, or rather, young adults, just weren't the same. Impatient, all of them, convinced they knew best.

"Granny."

Never listening to a word you said. Each and every one of them sure that they were smarter and better than their elders.

"Granny!"

No matter how often you showed them they still had plenty to learn, they all just HAD to go off and try things their own way and make their own mistakes, which they could have just avoided if they'd listened to you in the first place.

"Hey, old lady!"

Cologne turned around instantly and thumped Mousse over the head. "And where have YOU been, Mr Part-Time?" She demanded angrily.

Mouse rubbed his head. "Owww. I've been at... out."

Cologne huffed. "Oh, I see, out. A good place, out, is it? Perhaps I should throw you there more often!"

Mousse tried to focus on the most likely Cologne-shape. "You don't have to do that," he said, cringing slightly in anticipation of another blow. "I'm going there of my own free will!"

Cologne huffed in disbelief at the idea that Mousse had a will of his own, much less a free one. "Oh really. Had enough, have you? Can't take the heat anymore?"

"Um... yes?" Mouse said hesitantly. He proferred a piece of paper towards her. "I'm resigning. Right now. I just wanted to let you know."

Cologne accepted the piece of paper and read it quickly. "Oh well, fine, I'm surprised that you stuck it out this long," she said waspishly. "Well, you'd better be on your way I suppose. Go on then, be off with you."

Mousse scuttled backwards, bumping into a couple of tables as he went. He paused at the entryway and looked back at Cologne, who he could just make out moving around the café. "Um..."

"What is it, boy?"

"I uh, just wanted to say..." Mousse swallowed. Cologne had never treated him very well, but respect for his elders, especially his female elders, had been beaten into him at a very young age. Besides, from the tone of her voice Cologne was clearly not having a good day, and while she may have been a terrible old biddy, she was, well, kinda old. And she had let him live there all this time. He straightened to his full height, and bowed, clasping his hands towards her respectfully. "Thank you for everything."

He heard a dismissive sniff, and knew that was probably the best he was ever going to get. Turning to leave he paused, again and said quietly, "Bye, Granny."

Halfway down the street he paused. He needed to go left to get back to Ukyou's place, he knew. He might not be able to see, but at least he had a duck's homing instinct. (Or, at least a duck's migrating instinct. It helped that Ucchan's was south from the Nekohanten.) He needed to be back there by one at the latest, in order to make it to his assessment on time. Ukyou had managed to organise a preliminary examination at the local hospital eye-unit for him at two today, a task he'd thought would take days, if not weeks. But it seemed that Ukyou felt that sooner was better when it came to doing things, and she'd called in a lot of favours from regular customers to ensure that Mousse shot straight to the top of the surgical list. He was rather in awe of the way she'd bullied and nagged and ordered until she got her way. If Ukyou ever managed to get in charge of her own Amazon village, he figured she'd be a matriach to rival them all. So to fully show his appreciation for her efforts, he figured he needed to get back there as soon as possible so as not to keep her waiting. On the other hand... there was still one thing he needed to do.

He set his jaw, and went looking for Shampoo.

--

Lunchtime at the Tendo's was quieter than usual. At least it was for Ranma, who was trying hard to absorb the lessons he'd sat through that morning on Chinese history, and make them match up with the Akane's notes and the half-chapter of his textbook that he'd read before class. He thought there might actually be an idea for his end of term essay in there somewhere. Thoughts churning, he slurped his miso soup down loudly and quickly. Suddenly he paused, and reminded himself, for the fifth time that meal, to slow down. He cast a quick look at Kasumi to see if she'd noticed, then relaxed slightly when he caught her saying something to Nabiki.

The very brief exchange of words he'd had with her the day before had left him uneasy. Ryoga's description of the way he treated Shampoo and Ukyou before that had been stinging enough, but in some ways it was easier to push aside, because it was Ryoga after all, and who really expected him to listen to the Lost Boy?

But Kasumi was a different matter. She'd always been nice to him. Hell, she was always nice to EVERYONE, and her very brief comment that he tended to be "indiscriminate" in regards to food had really hurt. Ranma stared at his meal.

All his life he remembered being told by his father that he should eat fast and often, because you never knew where the next meal was coming from. And he never had back then. He remembered long weeks of getting by on water and whatever happened to be growing nearby, if his father didn't get there first. There'd never really been a time in his life when there'd been regular meals, until he came to the Tendos. Oh, at his junior high school there'd been lunch, and when he'd first met Ucchan he'd gotten to eat more frequently, but never the full three square meals a day. Even here at the Tendos he had to defend his food from Happosai or his father. While he realised that his father only took his food to train him to be faster, that didn't leave him any less hungry. And as for Happosai...

Akane poked him in the side. "Hey, are you awake?"

"What?" Ranma blinked and looked at her.

"You just zoned out there," she told him. "You're not even eating. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm feeling fine! There's nothing wrong with me!"

Akane raised an eyebrow at the defensive tone in his voice, but decided not to make any comments. Ranma looked confused and slightly upset, but rather than push him, she backed off.

Ranma breathed an internal sigh as Akane returned to her meal, and turned his own attention back to his, half-expecting it to be gone. But it was all still there, and he slowly scooped up some rice, put it in his mouth and began to carefully chew. He glanced over at Ryoga and Tenjou. Tenjou had finished all of his fish and vegetables, but still had some rice left. The boy darted a quick look around the table and then deflated slightly when he saw there was none left.

_Them's the breaks kid_, Ranma thought to himself, half-sympathetically, half-cynically.

Ryoga looked over at his son. "Oh, you want a bit more fish Tenjou?" He leaned over and nudged some off of his rice and into his sons' bowl. "There you go." As he straightened up, he caught the expression on Ranma's face just before the other man wiped it off and pretended to be engrossed in eating.

He'd looked devastated.

--

In the end, it was the sound of Shampoo's bicycle bell ringing that led Mousse to her.

"Shampoo?" He landed in front of her bike. "Shampoo I... that is you, isn't it?"

She made a rude comment in Chinese.

"Oh good." Mousse took a deep breath. "I have something to say, and I'd like you to hear me out. Afterwards, you can beat me up or insult me or never speak to me again, but just let me say this first."

"Shampoo too busy to listen to you," Shampoo growled angrily. Why was this idiot bothering her again? It was all too aggravating. You'd think he'd have learned by now.

_"You've lived here six years! Couldn't you at least TRY to speak Japanese properly?"_

She swallowed past the lump in her throat, feeling something heavy shift in her chest. It wasn't a feeling she was familiar with. It wasn't just being insulted, she'd had worse things said to her before. It wasn't just anger, she knew that sensation all too well. It was something else.

Pain. Hurt. Resentment.

And now here was her own personal idiot come to interrupt her in the middle of trying to work things out to talk to her about something which was almost certainly unimportant. Shampoo narrowed her eyes at Mousse, who had just said something about talking to her grandmother.

"/What on earth are you babbling about/" She demanded. "/I'm in a hurry/"

Mousse stopped, stumbled over his words, and came to a halt. He looked at her nervously, twisting his robe between his hands. "I just wanted to say," he paused, and switched to Chinese. "/Xian Pu, I love you./"

"/You came here bothering me over THAT/" Shampoo was unimpressed. "/I have a lot of work to do! Why are you wasting my time like this/"

"/Shampoo, I am telling you that I love you./" Mousse forced himself to meet her gaze. Despite his relative blindness, he'd always been able to do that at least. _Her eyes are so beautiful. _He made himself go on. "/I always have. I probably always will. I know that I'm not worthy of you, but I just wondered... would you... could you ever accept my love/"

Shampoo sniffed and swapped back to Japanese, "Stupid Mousse. You no can... cannot even defeat ME, much less Ranma. How can you win my love?"

Mousse looked at her, and she noticed with surprise the unusually serious tilt of his mouth.

"Shampoo, I've lived in Nerima for six years, and during that time I've noticed an interesting thing. All the other women I've met - Akane, Ukyou, Nabiki, Kasumi... even Kodachi - they don't need to be defeated to give love to others. In fact, they have a name around here for men who have to prove their masculinity by hitting women. What exactly would my defeating you in combat prove anyway? That I'm strong enough to hurt you? I don't want to hurt you Shampoo, I love you too much. I could never hurt you. I know it's tradition but... I don't WANT to beat you. I just want to be able to give my love to you. Can you at least let me do that?" He stretched out a hand. "I know it's nothing, but it's all I have."

Shampoo glared at him, and didn't reply.

The silence stretched on for a few minutes, until Mousse final lowered his arm.

"I see," he said, feeling tears pricking at his eyes. "Very well then, I understand. I apologise for trying to force my feelings upon you. I hope you... I hope you're happy, Shampoo." He turned away and began to walk falteringly away from her. Shampoo watched him go, until she could no longer see him or hear his footsteps anymore. Then she slumped down to the ground, feeling once again that something important had happened, but not being able to work out what exactly it was.

"Stupid STUPID Mousse." she whispered. "What nonsense you talking?" she swallowed, hard. "Are you talking?"

There was no answer.

--

Ranma had retreated to the roof after lunch, barely paying attention to the almost-struggle over the dishes between Akane and Kasumi and forgetting entirely about the sparring session he'd planned with Ryoga. His head was swirling, his thoughts running round and round so quickly he thought he might get motion sickness. He kept thinking about his father.

"Now remember boy, a martial artist must eat as often, as fast and as much as he can. Take your food whenever you get the chance."

He remembered what it felt like to be hungry. The agonising pains in his stomach, the fatigue, the way he'd drooled at the smell of food. Trying to eat grass like an animal. Chewing a stick of gum to try and fool his stomach into thinking it was being fed. Stealing food, stuffing it down his throat so fast that he puked, and then going back for more because it was the first food he'd had in a week.

Another memory, a cold autumn day, he'd stumbled across an apple tree, with a few wizened apples remaining. But he'd been too short to reach them, so he'd fetched his father.

His father who had climbed up, and then eaten them all.

"Let this be a lesson boy, you have to stand on your own two feet. You have to get what you want yourself. Because nobody will give you anything."

_"You want a little bit more fish Tenjou? There you go." _

"Ranma? Ranma? Hey, Ranma!"

Ranma started and looked over at Ryoga, who looked back at him quizzically.

"You don't look so good," Ryoga said calmly. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"Feeling sick?"

"I said I was fine!"

"Something you ate?"

Ranma turned, snarling, and threw a fist at Ryoga's head. Ryoga calmly swayed away from the blow, then hooked a foot around Ranma's ankle and pulled, sending Ranma's rear end to a painful meeting with the tatami.

"Want to talk about it?" He continued in the same calm tone of voice.

Ranma glared up at Ryoga.

"I hate you!"

That was what he'd been meaning to say. But what came out instead was:

"I hate him!"

Ryoga just looked at him. "Him who?"

Ranma was aghast, and clamped his mouth shut.

Ryoga cocked his head and thought about it. "Can't be any of our lot. You might dislike or get exasperated with Mousse and Kuno, but you don't hate them. Same with all the others. It's certainly not Tenjou, and I don't think you feel that strongly about Mr Tendo. Happosai?" He considered this for a while. "Possibly. But he's mostly just annoying. Make that EXTREMELY annoying. Besides, we all know how you feel about him. Hell! We all feel the same way, so there's no reason for you to be upset about it." He paused. "That just leaves..."

"My father," Ranma said, his voice nearly cracking. "Genma Saotome." His face burned with shame, and to his horror he felt tears prickle at the back of his eyes. Throwing his head back he yelled out at the top of his lungs.

"I HATE MY FATHER!"

There was a long silence.

"Feel better?" Ryoga asked quietly.

"No," Ranma snuffled, wiping the back of his hand across his face. "Maybe. A little."

Ryoga put his hands in his pockets. "Let's go for a walk."

Ranma quietly got to his feet and the two men headed out.

--

"So," said Ryoga as they strolled through a park, "do you feel like elaborating?"

"Do I have to?" Ranma asked. "It won't make any difference."

"Not if you don't want to," Ryoga said. "We can just walk."

Silence fell.

"It's not that I hate him, hate him," Ranma said abruptly. "I mean, he is my father. But, I just..." He scrambled for words.

"Hate everything that he says and does and is?" Ryoga suggested.

"YES!" Ranma covered his mouth with both hands, his eyes wide.

Ryoga stifled a chuckle at the sight. It was important he be serious. Ranma had been there for him, so he would be there for Ranma.

"Lots of sons and daughters don't approve of everything their parents do," he pointed out after a minute or so. "Akane gets embarrassed by her father being emotional, Kuno gets embarrassed because his father's a nutcase, and I'm sure that Tenjou will one day find me an embarrassment because I can't find my way out of a closet. Parents just are embarrassing. I think it's a rule."

"It's not like that," Ranma kicked a stone. "He's taught me to be a great martial artist you know."

"Mmmm," Ryoga said non-commitally. In his opinion, Genma had taught Ranma to be a "pretty good" martial artist, possibly by accident and mostly by luck. Ranma had taught himself to be a "great" martial artist, with the aid of a lot of teachers, a willingness to learn even the most ridiculous forms of martial arts, and an ego the size of Mount Fuji which simply did not allow him to give up.

"And I know he, you know, cares and stuff. In his own way. It's just that..." Ranma looked appealingly at Ryoga. "Aw come on man, don't make me say it."

"Yeah, I know," Ryoga said. And he did. It wasn't that Genma was deliberately malicious. It was that he just didn't think. Ever. About anything.

"He should have called it the Saotome School of Don't Look Before You Leap Martial Arts," Ryoga said aloud, earning a snort of amusement from Ranma.

"Yeah, it's just... it's like..." Ranma scowled. "I dunno. Why did you have to bring this up? I was happy before we started this."

"Sure you were," Ryoga snorted. "You nearly brought down the ultimate form of the shi-shi-hokodan at lunchtime."

Ranma crimsoned. "I was worried about a test in class this afternoon!"

"Of course you were."

Ranma kicked at the ground again. "Okay, so I wasn't happy." He hesitated, not wanting to be seen as a whiner.

"But you've looked around and you've decided that you don't necessarily want to continue on the way you were before," Ryoga filled in. "That you want to change things."

"Yeah," Ranma said with relief. "I hate it. All the arguing, all the pointless fights, the running around in a panic..."

"You like the fights and the running around!"

"Well, yeah," Ranma said with a grin. Then he sobered. "But, I don't know if I'm happy with how I am. Kasumi said something to me yesterday, and it sounded like she thought I was like my Dad. But I'm not like that."

"No."

Ranma frowned. "I can't believe I'm getting into such a fuss over food and eating." He growled. "Akane always gives me a hard time about the way I just inhale food too. She says I eat like a..." he just managed to avoid saying 'pig', "wild animal."

"Well, you do."

"Hey!"

"You do. You KNOW you do," Ryoga retorted. "You eat like you've been locked up in a rock for five hundred years!"

Ranma turned bright red. "M'not THAT bad."

"Well you're not as bad as..." Ryoga just managed to avoid saying 'your father', "some people, but you do tend to vacuum up the food pretty rapidly." He considered this. "But you were actually pretty good this morning and at lunch. Your table manners were much better than usual," he looked over at Ranma. "You feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," Ranma said defensively. "Why does everyone keep asking me that? So I wanted to take my time for once. So sue me. And maybe I feel like it's time to practice my table manners. I have got some you know, I just don't use 'em very often. But that doesn't mean that I can't. You know, if I really wanted to."

Ryoga made a non-commital sound. "I guess it helps that you weren't having to fight..." your father... "Happosai for every mouthful."

"It is less stressful when he's not here." Ranma agreed, to both spoken and unspoken statement. He hesitated. "You know, I guess I am like my father. At least a little bit."

"Yes." Ryoga responded calmly.

"But only a little right?"

"Yes."

Ranma scowled. "I don't like it. I don't want to BE like that. I don't want to steal food out of the mouths of children. And I hate all this arranged marriage crap. Why did he do that? I never asked for it, and it's screwing everything up. And why the hell can't he just once read the damn instructions before starting some new martial art thing? Cursed springs? Cat Fist! I mean, for crying out loud, how stupid do you have to be to make those kind of mistakes? And I want to see my mother! I haven't seen her for ages, and that's not even mentioning the whole disastrous Ranko-thing! I hate that! That's the one thing I can't really forgive my father for. He took me away from my mother and made that STUPID promise and now I don't get to really TALK to her. I miss her."

"I thought she knew and was okay with it," Ryoga said in confusion. "Weren't you going to live with her? Why don't you go visit?"

"Three words: Shampoo, Kodachi, Ukyou."

"Oh," Ryoga shuddered. "Ouch."

"Yeah," Ranma said moodily. "Which brings us back round to my Dad and his fiancee-fetish."

Ryoga decided not to point out that Kodachi and some of Shampoo's interests were mostly Ranma's own fault.

By this point, the two men had circled back around to the Tendo's house. Ranma stopped and turned to face Ryoga.

"So, what do you think I should do?"

Ryoga looked at him. "You should do what you want to do Ranma. I can't give you any better advice than that." And with that, he walked into the house.

Ranma watched him. "Do what I want to do? What kind of advice is THAT!"

--

As the bell for the end of kindergarten rang three times, a crowd of small children burst exuberantly through the doors and headed for the various parents who'd come to pick them up, or carefully off to walk home in groups.

One small child looked around carefully.

"Tenjou!" Akane waved from her position by the gate. Tenjou waved upon seeing her and she walked over to him. "Did you enjoy kindergarten?"

"I think he did," the teacher by the door said with a smile. "But I can tell you for certain that we all enjoyed having him here!"

"Bye Tenjou!" A little girl called as her mother led her away. "See you tomorrow!"

"Bye Tenjou!" Another girl called.

Akane giggled. "I see you're a hit with the girls," she teased him gently.

Tenjou wrinkled his nose at her.

"Come on, let's get you home to your dad," Akane took his hand in hers. "Thank you very much for looking after him," she said to the teacher.

"Not at all," the teacher replied. "We look forward to seeing him tomorrow."

Akane led him down the pathway. "Was it really okay? No-one... bothered you?"

Tenjou looked confused, then shrugged and smiled at Akane reassuringly. Akane sighed. The Tendo sisters had all been a bit worried that he might get picked on because of his silent ways, but apparently his sweet nature had prevented it. _What a relief. I shudder to think of Ryoga's reaction if anything had happened to him._

Eventually they reached the Tendo Training Hall.

"We're back!" Akane yelled as they arrived.

"Tenjou!" Ryoga and Kasumi cried as they raced out to the front doorstep.

Ryoga blinked as Kasumi zoomed past him and scooped his son out of Akane's grip.

"Ummm..."

"Let's put you down for a nice nap!" Kasumi said to Tenjou and walked off. "And then you can have some more shaved ice!" She walked off, chattering away happily to the little boy.

Ryoga watched them go with a stupefied expression on his face.

"Errr..."

He had a bad feeling about all this.

Behind him Akane was trying desperately not to laugh.

"Ryoga, when Kasumi comes back could you tell her I've gone to my class, and that I'll be back for dinner?" Akane asked.

"Sure..." Ryoga said. "Ummm... do you think she'll let me see my son?"

"I wouldn't put any money on it," Akane said cheerfully. "Later Ryoga-kun. Oh, and Ryoga? He's a wonderful boy."

Ryoga looked at her in confusion and then smiled. "Thank you."

Akane walked back out and Ryoga sat down.

After a while he smiled. "They're right. He is a wonderful boy."

"I just wish I could get to spend some TIME with him today."

--

To be continued...

--

Author's Notes: Yes, an update. No, you're not dreaming. IT LIVES!

It's been a couple of years, but recently I hauled out the files and notes on this story and went over them, trying to think of a way to fix the rather large plot hole that had developed in it. I have some ideas now and I am determined to finish this story! I'd like to apologise to, and thank profusely, everyone who's been waiting for so long. I wish I could guarantee a next chapter very soon, but at the very least I can promise it will be sooner than it took for this one!

I have also gone back over the other sections of the story currently on ffnet and removed the poems that used to precede each one, in keeping with the revised Terms of Service. Along the way I tidied some of the formatting up, so hopefully nothing is too badly mangled.

Thanks for all your patience,

Jaelle


End file.
